Control Effector Health Management System
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current vehicle health management systems face challenges in providing prompt diagnoses of control effector health due to insufficient and delayed health information, which can endanger missions and vehicles, especially when commands are minimal during flight.
Innovation Solution
A system and method that includes a test module and a reasoner to process command and sensor data, generate health data, selectively indict and clear faults, determine test excitation signals to verify failures, and supply these signals to control effectors, thereby accelerating health assessment and maintaining control during flight.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If pre-flight checks are performed to exercise control effectors, then health information quality improves, but time consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs health assessments of control effectors before flight operations begin. The health management system proactively exercises control effectors through pre-flight checks to gather health information in advance, ensuring high-quality diagnostic data is available before missions start, thus avoiding time-consuming assessments during critical flight phases.
2Measurement precision
If test excitation signals are supplied to verify suspected failures, then diagnostic accuracy improves, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The health management system continuously monitors control effector responses to commands and feeds this information back to the reasoner. When suspected failures are detected, the system automatically generates and supplies test excitation signals to the control effectors, then analyzes the responses to confirm or clear faults. This closed-loop feedback mechanism improves diagnostic accuracy while automating the process to manage system complexity.
3Reliability
If health monitoring is continuous, then reliability improves, but information processing load increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs continuous health monitoring but applies full diagnostic analysis selectively. The reasoner processes health information continuously at a basic level to maintain reliability, but only initiates comprehensive test excitation signals and detailed fault analysis when suspected failures are detected. This partial action approach maintains reliable monitoring while reducing overall information processing load by avoiding excessive full-scale diagnostics during normal operation.
Data Source
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AI summary
A system and method for verifying the response capabilities of a control effector include processing, in a test module, at least command data and sensor data associated with the control effector to generate control effector health data representative of control effector health. The control effector health data are processed in a reasoner to selectively indict and clear one or more faults, determine a failure is uncertain based on the one or more indicted faults, determine one or more test excitation signals to supply to the control effector to verify whether the uncertain failure is present or absent, and supply the one or more test excitation signals to a controller that is in operable communication with the control effector.