Condition Monitoring of Aircraft and Ground-Support Subsystems

An effort to apply condition-monitoring techniques to aircraft and ground-support equipment is proposed. Initially, the Phase I effort will concentrate on demonstrating the use of motor-current analysis to determine mechanical anomalies in motor-drivensystems. A practical instrument will then be designed for field- and depot-level use on the Predator tail-servo system. The Phase I effort also will include a study of and recommendations for applications of motor-based, acoustic, chemical, thermal, andoptical method--separately or in synergistic combination--for condition monitoring of other systems in the Air Force inventory. A Phase-II effort will involve construction of the condition-monitoring instrument designed in Phase I and application of theresults of the Phase-I study. The Phase-III effort will apply condition-monitoring methods to critical industrial systems where downtime is very costly.The overall goal of this program is the development of commercially available, cost-effectiveinstruments capable of determining the fitness of aerospace electrical and mechanical systems under actual operating conditions. The motor-based methods will have applications to a wide variety of aerospace and industrial systems where mechanical energyis provided by electric motors. The synergistic combination of several methods will be cost effective in numerous high-value applications where safety and reliability are critical.