Prognostic Models and Diagnostic Software Package for Actuator Health Management

Impact Technologies proposes to develop an automated reasoning software package for prognostics and health management (PHM) of flight control actuators. Actuators are complex mechanisms utilized in various aircraft systems from flight control surfaces tolanding gear, cargo doors and weapon systems. Impact proposes to mature its developed prognostic modeling paradigm for actuator fault detection and failure progression to produce specific modules that could be used on the F/A-18 Servocylinder Test Stand(STS). Impact plans to leverage its previous experience in developing PHM algorithms for hydraulic pumps, gearboxes, and engine control system components. The automated reasoners will process data from the flight control system using a combination ofdeveloped physical models, signal processing techniques, neural network modeling, advanced feature and knowledge fusion strategies, classification algorithms, and an evolving array of prognostics methods. The algorithms will account for specific conditionsand uncertainties to determine the existence of faults and, whenever possible with sufficient historical trending, the remaining useful life of the actuator and its critical, life-limited components. Upon completion of this proposed Phase II effort, Impactwill validate the developed automated reasoner and software package on available flight control actuator data and demonstrate its real-time capabilities using a customized graphical interface. The realization of such an automated, prognostic reasoningpackage will significantly enhance the maintainer's ability to schedule maintenance activities, optimize operational life cycles, and reduce the overall logistics footprint. The capabilities of the automated PHM package will include the ability to assessactuator health through sensor observables, apply model-based and data-driven approaches to identify evolving problems, estimate uncertainties in measurements and properties, and predict fault evolution with confidence bounds. The actuator prognostichealth monitoring software package is targeted towards the F/A-18 STS within this Phase II effort, but the diagnostic and prognostic software modules generated under this program will contain many generic elements that can be transitioned to a broad rangeof other applications. The techniques used could be adapted and implemented in a wide range of military aircraft (manned and unmanned) as well as commercial applications in the civilian aviation community (passenger aircraft, cargo transports, businessjets, private aircraft, etc.). The software could be applied as an on-board, at-wing, or depot-level maintenance strategy. The developed technologies could also be applied to land and water vehicle drive systems, industrial actuation systems, fluid powertransmission, and robotic applications. Better diagnosis of actuation systems and more accurate time-to-failure predictions will reduce the risk of safety-related system failures and decrease costly inspection routines as well as premature componentreplacements by using a risk-based, maintenance optimization technique (Condition-based Maintenance).