Real-Time Prognostic and Health Management System, Program Product, and Associate Methods

• US 20110270484A1
• Filed: 05/03/2010
• Published: 11/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/03/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lockheed Martin Corporation (Martin Marietta Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Lockheed Martin Corporation (Martin Marietta Corporation)
• Inventors: Grube, William E.
• Granted Patent: US 8,751,096 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/30
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0221 Preprocessing measurements, e.g. data collection rate adjustment; Standardization of measurements; Time series or signal analysis, e.g. frequency analysis or wavelets; Trustworthiness of measurements; Indexes therefor; Measurements using easily measured parameters to estimate parameters difficult to measure; Virtual sensor creation; De-noising; Sensor fusion; Unconventional preprocessing inherently present in specific fault detection methods like PCA-based methods
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0224 Process history based detection method, e.g. whereby history implies the availability of large amounts of data

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention provide a prognostics and health management (PHM) system for one or more electronic, electro-mechanical, pneudraulic and mechanical devices of an aircraft, and associated diagnostic methods and computer program products. The system includes a tangible and non-transitory memory preloaded with prognostics and health management signature data; one or more sensors that are adapted to monitor the one or more devices; and a logic device adapted to calculate an address and to access the tangible and non-transitory memory using the calculated address in real time. One or more portions of the calculated address are responsive to one or more parameter values associated with the sensors so that sensor parameter data determines the address into the memory. In the PHM system, the logic device is further adapted to generate a PHM alert in real time responsive to a value of the PHM signature data accessed at the address.

Claims

1. A real-time prognostics and health management system for one or more devices, the prognostics and health management system comprising:

a tangible and non-transitory memory preloaded with prognostics and health management signature data;

one or more sensors that are adapted to monitor one or more parameters associated with the one or more electronic devices; and

a logic device adapted to calculate an address and to access the tangible and non-transitory memory using the calculated address in real time, one or more portions of the calculated address being responsive to one or more parameter values associated with the one or more sensors so that sensor parameter data determines the address into the memory.

2. A prognostics and health management system of claim 1, wherein the logic device is further adapted to generate a prognostics and health management alert in real time responsive to a value of the prognostics and health management signature data accessed at the address.

3. A prognostics and health management system of claim 2, wherein a size of the value of the prognostics and health management signature data accessed at the address is four bits.

4. A prognostics and health management system of claim 1, wherein the one or more devices are associated with an aircraft.

5. A prognostics and health management system of claim 4, wherein the tangible and non-transitory memory is preloaded with prognostics and health management signature data preflight;

and wherein the logic device is adapted to calculate an address and to access the tangible and non-transitory memory using the calculated address in flight.

6. A prognostics and health management system of claim 5, wherein the aircraft is an unmanned aircraft.

7. A prognostics and health management system of claim 1, further comprising one or more analog-to-digital converters so that analog sensor data from one or more sensors is digitized prior to the logic device calculating the address.

8. A prognostics and health management system of claim 7, wherein the tangible and non-transitory memory preloaded with the prognostics and health management signature data involves a first prognostics and health management signature data, and the system further includes one or more second prognostics and health management signature data positioned between the one or more analog-to-digital converters and the logic device so that a relatively larger amount of digitized sensor data is mapped to a relatively smaller amount of address data.

9. A diagnostic method comprising:

generating prognostics and health management signature data for one or more devices associated with an aircraft;

preloading the prognostics and health management signature data for the one or more devices associated with the aircraft into a tangible and non-transitory memory;

calculating a first address portion responsive to a first digital parameter value associated with the one or more devices;

calculating a second address portion responsive to a second digital parameter value associated with the one or more devices; and

accessing the prognostics and health management signature data by a logic device generating an address into the memory in real time, the address comprising the calculated first and second address portions.

10. A diagnostic method of claim 9, further comprising:

generating a prognostics and health management alert by the logic device responsive to a value of the prognostics and health management signature data accessed at the address.

11. A diagnostic method of claim 10, wherein the prognostics and health management alert provides an interrupt input to a processor signifying that the one or more devices associated with an aircraft are in need of service.

12. A diagnostic method of claim 9, wherein a size of the value of the prognostics and health management signature data accessed at the address is four bits.

13. A diagnostic method of claim 12, wherein the step of preloading the prognostics and health management signature data into the tangible and non-transitory memory occurs preflight, and wherein the steps of calculating the first address portion, calculating the second address portion, and accessing the prognostics and health management signature data occurs in flight.

14. A diagnostic method of claim 9, wherein the steps of calculating the first address portion and calculating the second address portion involve one or more sensors and one or more analog-to-digital converters so that analog sensor data is digitized.

15. A diagnostic method of claim 14, wherein the step of preloading the prognostics and health management signature data involves a first prognostics and health management signature data, and wherein the steps of calculating the first address portion and calculating the second address portion further involve one or more second prognostics and health management signature data so that a relatively larger amount of digitized sensor data is mapped to a relatively smaller amount of address data.

16. A computer program product, stored on a tangible and non-transitory computer memory media, operable on a computer, the computer program product comprising a set of instructions that, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to perform the operations of:

generating prognostics and health management signature data for one or more devices associated with an aircraft;

preloading preflight the prognostics and health management signature data for the one or more devices associated with the aircraft into a first tangible and non-transitory memory;

accessing post flight a second tangible and non-transitory memory to retrieve fault log data, including a prognostics and health management alert; and

analyzing the fault log data to thereby provide prognostics and health management status.

17. A computer program product of claim 16, wherein the fault log data further includes configuration information, including a hardware version, a firmware version, a prognostics and health management signature data version, electronic timer instrument data, and pointer information for the log queues.

18. A computer program product of claim 17, wherein the fault log data further includes time of occurrence of the prognostics and health management alert, the prognostics and health management signature data address;

and a status of the prognostics and health management alert.

19. A computer program product of claim 18, wherein the operations further include:

updating the prognostics and health management signature data for the one or more devices associated with the aircraft using the analyzed fault log data.

20. A computer program product of claim 19, wherein the one or more devices associated with an aircraft includes three or more of the following:

a hydraulic pump, a valve, a hydraulic motor, and an electronic controller.