USV Modular Power Generator System: Design for Reliability using MBSE achieving Graceful Degradation through Supervisory Control

Hepburn and Sons LLC teamed with General Electric (GE) Vernova Advanced Research proposes to design a supervisory control methodology that enable graceful degradation of an Unmanned Surface Vessel (USV) modular generator system. The design will be optimized for system reliability, efficiency, and extended maintenance intervals. Key challenge facing USVs is the maintenance interval and autonomous fault management. Among other maintenance requirements, generator systems require oil changes every 700 hours. In order to reach a 2000-hour maintenance interval and 4000-hour mean time between failure (MTBF), USV power generation systems necessitates an innovative maintenance solution and graceful degradation from full mission capacity down to “limp home” mode.     The design approach will include an extensive failure modes, effects, and criticality analysis (FMECA), incorporating the Hepburn team’s hull, mechanical, and electrical (HM&E) expertise into a model-based systems engineering (MBSE) approach to achieve an Authoritative Source of Truth (ASoT) model that follows the design lifecycle. The GE Research team brings supervisory control and energy conversion system expertise for an innovative and automatic maintenance solution for system graceful degradation. The team will assess the mission concept of operations (CONOPS) alongside the TPOC and extended Navy network in support of an effective MBSE design approach.