RELIABILITY, AVAILABILITY, AND MAINTAINABILITY ANALYSIS SOFTWARE FOR OPTIMIZATION OF SERVOMANIPULATOR DESIGNS

MANY FEDERAL PROGRAMS PLAN TO USE SERVOMANIPULTOR TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPED BY DOE. IN ADDITION, DOE IS ACTIVELY ATTEMPTING TO COMMERCIALIZE SERVOMANIPULATOR TECHNOLOGY. BOTH FEDERAL AND COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS OF THIS TECHNOLOGY REQUIRE THAT CERTAIN RELIABILITY, AVAILABILITY, AND MAINTAINABILITY (RAM) GOALS BE MET. TO THIS END IT IS PLANNED TO DEVELOP RAM ANALYSIS SOFTWARE THAT WILL HELP SERVOMANIPULATOR DESIGNERS OPTIMIZE THEIR DESIGNS EFFICIENTLY. TO DETERMINE THE FEASIBILITY OF DEVELOPING SUCH SOFTWARE, THE FOLLOWING TECHNICAL APPROACH IS BEING PURSUED IN PHASE I OF THIS PROJECT: (1) COLLECT DATA ON SERVOMANIPULATOR DESIGN, OPERATION, AND MAINTENANCE;(2) IDENTIFY FUNCTIONAL SUBSYSTEMS FOR WHICH RAM MODELS WILLBE CONSTRUCTED; (3) PERFORM A FAILURE MODES AND EFFECTS ANALYSIS OF SERVOMANIPULATOR COMPONENTS; (4) COLLECT AND ANALYZE DATA FOR RELEVANT COMPONENT FAILURE MODES; (5) DEVELOP RAM MODELS; (6) QUANTIFY THE RAM CHARACTERISTICS OF A TYPICAL SERVOMANIPULATOR DESIGN; AND (7) DOCUMENT THE FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS ON THE FEASIBILITY OF AUTOMATING RAM ANALYSES OF SERVOMANIPULATOR SYSTEMS. PHASE II WILL FOCUS ON GENERALIZING THE RAM MODELS AND DATA BASE, AND ON DEVELOPING THE RAM ANALYSIS SOFTWARE PACKAGE FOR SERVOMANIPULATOR DESIGNERS. PHASE III WILL FOCUS ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF RAM ANALYSIS SOFTWARE APPLICABLE TO ROBOTIC SYSTEMS AND A WIDE RANGE OF OTHER SYSTEM DESIGN PROBLEMS.