Formal verification and legacy redesign

Sustaining weapons system hardware and software represents a significant and ever-increasing portion of total system cost. Hardware components are becoming obsolete much sooner while weapons system lifetimes are increasing, We must identify more cost-effective solutions to engineering and reengineering these subsystems. Verifying and validating weapons systems are two of the most costly parts of either engineering process. Traditionally, hardware validation and verification is done by simulation and testing, In the past few years, math- and logic-based formal methods tools have begun to scale up to and be applied successfully to real-world problems. Incorporating formal verification methods into engineering and reengineering processes will cost-effectively and significantly improve the level of trust and the quality of our weapons systems. Formal methods are especially well suited for redesigning current weapon systems which have become unsupportable due to component obsolescence because they help minimize the astronomical costs of rigorously reverifying the reengineered components. We believe that formal methods are an important tool for effective engineering of future weapon systems     

Role of BIT in support system maintenance and availability

The role of built in test (BIT) in electronic systems has grown in prominence with the advances in system complexity and concern over maintenance lifecycle costs of large systems. In an environment where standards drive system designs (and provide an avenue for focused advancement in technology), standards for BIT are very much in an evolutionary state. The reasons for advancing the effectiveness of BIT include reduced support overhead, greater, confidence in operation, and increased system availability. The cost of supporting military electronic systems (avionics, communications, and weapons systems) has driven much of the development in BIT technology. But what about the systems that support these end items that contain test and measurement instrumentation - such as automatic test equipment (ATE), simulators and avionics development suites? There has also been a beneficial effect on the maintenance and availability of these systems due to the infusion of BIT into their component assemblies. But the effect has been much more sporadic and fragmented. This paper looks at the state of BIT in test and measurement instruments, explain its affect on system readiness, and present ideas on how to improve BIT technologies and standards. This will not provide definitive answers to BIT development questions, since the factors that affect it are specific to the instrument itself. The topics covered in this paper are: definitions of built-in test, instrument BIT history, importance of BIT fault coverage and isolation in support systems, overview of BIT development process issues that limit the effectiveness of BIT Standards related to instrument BIT, making BIT more effective in support system maintenance and availability and conclusions.     

Airborne platform capability assessment

It is expected that the multimode weapons systems of the future will be highly fault tolerant, possessing the ability to perform tactical missions with both full or degraded functional capabilities. The fault-tolerant system characteristics will allow systems with less than the fully specified functional capabilities to be engaging in combat. This design feature will present the operators of these weapons system with the operational challenge of selecting and/or assigning weapons platforms with degraded capabilities to carry out tactical missions. An in-system assessment process is proposed to evaluate the operability for these weapons platforms on the basis of current functional status, the reliability of the hardware resources within the system's avionics, and the resources required by the various application modes to accomplish mission tasks     

Enhancing Maintainability of the AWG-10 Through Built-In-Test Equipment

Multimode airborne weapons systems are now a reality. Because of the increased complexity of these systems, excessive maintenance time has become a problem. This paper describes an approach to reducing maintenance time through the use of semiautomatic built-in-test equipment within the framework of an integrated maintenance program. Emphasis is placed on the methods and hardware involved in the built-in-test mechanization as well as describing the development history of this type of maintenance concept.     

微波空间定位系统及在飞行试验中的应用

介绍“微波空间定位系统”及其在飞行试验中的应用，该系统达到的定位和测速精度与电影经纬仪相近，比雷达高，便携式的ＫＤＣＣ系统，体积小，重量轻，使用维护简单，是一种具有高经济效益的飞机航迹测量系统。该系统可用于飞机性能，操稳和系统试飞的测试，也可推广用于某些制导武器的弹道测试。已成功地在飞机的飞行试验中应用。该系统的研制成功，将为提高校准精度，降低试飞成本提供一种有效的手段。     

Vertical test integration

Today, most every weapon system is electronics intensive. Digital computers are at the core of military aircraft, ship, and vehicle weapons systems. Indeed, each weapon system's performance is largely determined by its digital computers and other electronics. This electronics dependency is necessary in order to provide the speed, functional compliance, and accuracy to achieve the required weapon system performance. Historically, test systems required for the various maintenance levels and also at the manufacturing site have each been uniquely developed, employed, and sustained for only one area of weapon system electronics support. There are a number of reasons for this situation including different organizations responsible for the levels of support, different funding sources, timing limitations, and technical feasibility. In recent years, however, commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) advances in measurement and stimulation hardware, personal computers, Windows operating systems, flexible test programming languages, and more, have made it technically feasible to develop a family of test systems that provide common weapon system electronics support at all levels. Some use the phrase Vertical Test Integration to describe this concept of factory/field/depot integration     

Reliability evaluation of avionics system with imperfect fault coverage and propagated failure mechanisms

Fault tolerance designs are essential techniques for systems that require high levels of reliability, such as aircraft or spacecraft control system. Imperfect Fault Coverage (IFC) may lead to the failure of a system or subsystem even with adequate redundancy. Previous studies of IFC mostly concentrated on evaluating Coverage Factor (CF), whereas the system failure behaviors with IFC have rarely been involved. Failures that occur in low-layer may be covered by high-layer. However, if the coverage is imperfect, uncovered failure will have functional and physical impact on the system behavior. In this thesis, the failure behavior and reliability of IFC of multi-layer systems are studied and a Binary Decision Diagram (BDD)-based modeling and simulation method are proposed to evaluate system reliability. As a case, the failure behavior of an aero engine electronic controller with IFC is studied. The results show that the IFC may impact system behavior without taking the IFC into account, the system maintenance intervals may reduce, and thus the maintenance costs will increase.     

Wearable computers open a new era in support resource management

Our aerospace customers are demanding that we drastically reduce the operating and support costs of our products. In today's aerospace maintenance environment, the vast majority of maintenance technicians are using paper technical publications, with fixed troubleshooting trees, and manual or semi-automated post maintenance documentation. Interactive Electronic Technical Manuals (IETMs) are at this time being deployed with portable maintenance aids, often an electronic notebook-sized data presentation system, some with expert system based troubleshooting aids. Many of the IETM based systems still require post maintenance documentation and, the maintenance control function is at best, updated when each maintenance task is completed and the vehicle departs. Advances in wearable computer technologies allow us to integrate the maintenance technician with a highly automated, tightly managed support system that will significantly reduce support costs and turn-around times while improving the quality of maintenance. A “Portable Maintenance Terminal” is a wearable computer configured to meet a maintenance technician's information and communication needs. The Portable Maintenance Terminal (PMT) will place the maintenance technician in the loop with the support system. Wearable computers are intended for use in locations where easy access to a desktop computer or laptop is not practical, or where operators are required to have their hands on the job rather than being busy with a computer. The wearable PMT can provide a hands-free, heads-up, networked computing environment     

Intelligent control of a planning system for astronaut training

This work intends to design, analyze and solve, from the systems control perspective, a complex, dynamic, and multiconstrained planning system for generating training plans for crew members of the NASA-led International Space Station. Various intelligent planning systems have been developed within the framework of artificial intelligence. These planning systems generally lack a rigorous mathematical formalism to allow a reliable and flexible methodology for their design, modeling, and performance analysis in a dynamical, time-critical, and multiconstrained environment. Formulating the planning problem in the domain of discrete-event systems under a unified framework such that it can be modeled, designed, and analyzed as a control system will provide a self-contained theory for such planning systems. This will also provide a means to certify various planning systems for operations in the dynamical and complex environments in space. The work presented here completes the design, development, and analysis of an intricate, large-scale, and representative mathematical formulation for intelligent control of a real planning system for Space Station crew training. This planning system has been tested and used at NASA-Johnson Space Center     

Open system concepts for modular avionics

Advanced communications, guidance and navigation systems play key roles in determining superiority of one combat aircraft over another. The use of advanced technology is essential to meeting the mission requirements of present as well as future aircraft. Modular avionics are being used in next generation aircraft, such as the Air Force F-22 fighter and the Army Comanche helicopter, as the means of achieving higher levels of performance, including reduced volume and improved adaptability, maintainability, and expandability. New system acquisitions such as Joint Strike Fighter will attempt to achieve these same performance levels but at dramatically reduced life cycle cost. Retrofit applications will also take on increasing roles in meeting this affordability need as the Department of Defense (DoD) struggles to maintain readiness in the face of the shrinking defense budget. The government is encouraging the use of open standards practices as a means of addressing the affordability issue. The Open Systems Joint Task Force (OS-JTF), formed in September 1994, is chartered to “sponsor and accelerate the adoption of open systems in weapons systems and subsystem electronics to reduce life-cycle costs and facilitate effective weapon system intra- and interoperability”. The purpose of this paper is to relate the concept of open systems to modular avionics. It discusses the key attributes of an open systems approach and identifies key technologies necessary for its success     

Integrated Avionics: Watershed in Systems Development

For aeronautical weapon systems now entering development, avionics will equal or surpass airframe, propulsion, and weapons in establishing system effectiveness, both in terms of mission accomplishment and in terms of reliability, availability, supportability, and life cycle cost. Emerging technologies created the opportunity to satisfy demanding operational needs and to provide the means to upgrade systems against an evolving threat. This requires, however, basic changes in the skills, design methods, and constraints applied to avionics development. This paper highlights trends in avionics technology and systems and suggests some of the new ground rules which must be imposed to realize their full potential. Avionics considerations must be a central element of system development from the very outset, and the process of conceptual planning and program estimation must take the new realities of avionics into account.     

Designing to MIL-STD-2165: Testability

The V-22 avionic hardware is the first to be designed under MIL-STD-2165 testability program requirements. This paper presents an overview of the avionics design-for-testability approach and lessons learned to date relative to the application of MIL-STD-2165. The paper will discuss incorporation of testability requirements up front in the avionics design which will drive the supportability philosophy at both the Organizational and Depot levels of maintenance. The paper will compare previous avionics hardware testability requirements versus those applied to the V-22 avionics and highlight areas of improvement. A discussion of testability design impacts on reduced level of testing (i.e. WRA/SRA/System) will be included. In addition, the paper discusses an innovative approach to meeting the user requirements for a man-portable forward deployed maintenance capability that forms the basis for a two level support scenario (Organizational and Depot). The innovation comes from the fact that the on-board Central Integrated Checkout system will provide data as well as fault isolation and will use this data as a mechanism to reduce the size and complexity of the stimulus and measurement hardware at either the Organizational or Depot level depending on the deployment requirements.     

空间机械臂维修性系统设计与评价体系的构建

空间机械臂维修性系统设计与评价体系的构建对机械臂维修具有非常重要的意义。结合空间机械臂维修性需求,建立了机械臂"设计-验证-设计-评价"全周期系统性的维修性设计与评价体系,根据维修性系统设计体系进行维修性设计-验证-再设计的循环管理,再根据维修性评价体系,三类评价人员模拟在轨维修操作场景分别开展维修评价,最终根据评价指标中的不合格项进行设计迭代。以机械臂中央控制器在轨维修为例验证该评价体系。研究结果将为后续空间机械臂维修性设计与评价工作提供体系借鉴和工程指导。     

可靠性系统工程的理论与技术框架

简要回顾了可靠性系统工程的形成过程,以产品故障为核心,阐述了可靠性系统工程的概念与定义,把认识产品故障发生规律和故障表现规律作为可靠性系统工程基础理论,把故障预防技术、故障控制技术和故障修复技术作为可靠性系统工程的基础技术,把基础技术的集成作为可靠性系统工程的应用技术,从而初步建立了可靠性系统工程的理论与技术框架,细化了可靠性系统工程的学科内涵。可靠性系统工程作为初现的新学科,虽然尚未达到严格定义与清晰表达的完善状态,但是我们完全有信心期待其作为一种新的方法论,帮助工程设计人员更好地完成工程系统的设计。     

改进的细菌觅食算法在航空装备维修任务调度优化中的应用

以海军航空装备定检维修工作为原型,将一种新兴的仿生全局随机搜索算法--细菌觅食优化算法应用到该类任务调度问题的解决中,对算法进行了改进,增强了全局寻优能力,并将其应用于工程实践,对维修任务工序进行优化调度.对于提高航空装备维修工作效率和指挥自动化水平,提高资源利用率,降低保障维修费用,有较好的应用价值.     

考虑不完全维修的劣化系统最优视情维修策略

 针对实际装备维修工程中系统不能"修如新"以及修后工作时间逐渐缩短的情况,基于Gamma过程建立劣化系统的视情维修(CBM)模型,以定期检测的方式获知系统状态。当系统劣化状态超过预定阈值时采取预防性维修,维修后系统恢复至"如新"与"如旧"之间的某一随机状态;经过若干次预防性维修后,当劣化状态再次超过维修阈值时则进行预防性更换;在对系统进行预防性维修或更换之前若发生劣化故障,则进行故障后更换;通过对检测周期和更换策略联合优化,使得系统长期运行费用率最低。最后通过算例说明CBM模型的可行性,并利用Monte Carlo算法仿真验证模型的正确性。     

Methodology for cost-effective software fault tolerance formission-critical systems

A computing capabilities continue to advance, there will be a concurrent rise in the number of both hardware and software faults. These will be caused by the greater volume of more complex software, by the increased number of untested software states, and by more incidents of hardware/software interaction faults as a result of increased hardware speed and density. The traditional software implemented fault tolerance: approaches have been successfully utilized in life-critical systems, such as digital flight controls, where their additional costs can be easily justified. Examples include N-Version Programming and Recovery Block approaches. However, there is still a need for dependable computing for mission-critical applications as well. Often, these traditional techniques are avoided for mission-critical systems due to the difficulty in justifying their extra up-front development cost. We provide an alternative for the high “sunk cost” of traditional software fault tolerance techniques. The methodology, called data fusion integrity processes (DFIPs), is a simple, yet effective technique for mission-critical systems. In addition, the approach establishes a framework from which other costlier, more extensive traditional techniques can be added. We present details of the DFIP methodology and a DFIP framework for Ada programs. We also briefly discuss development of a DFIP code generation system which exploits Java that will enable users to quickly build a DFIP framework in Ada, and select reusable DFIP component methods     

Aircraft maintenance jacking problem via optimization

We address the problem of assigning forces to jacking positions in order to weaken stress at points where an aircraft maintenance operation has to be performed. We introduce a mixed-integer linear programming model and report encouraging computational experiments on historical data. Our methodology is currently under the process of industrial implementation at Airbus, where it will be used as a maintenance decision-analysis tool.     

Recent developments of electric vehicles and their propulsionsystems

Major recent electric vehicle (EV) programs in North America, Europe, and Japan are reviewed. The developments discussed include electric vehicles for fleet operation and electric passenger cars for urban transit. All major auto makers have had their own concept electric vehicle programs, targeted at commercial production in the late 1990s. It Is noted that, with different objectives for various electric vehicles, considerations such as cost, reliability, efficiency, maintenance, durability, weight, size, and noise level should be compromised for the propulsion system design. Consequently, DC motor drives, induction motor drives, and permanent magnet brushless DC motor drives will continually be used for EV propulsion systems in the future, with DC drives being gradually replaced by AC drives. The rapid advances in power semiconductor devices and microprocessors have made it possible to build reliable and cost-effective AC drive systems     

电机智能制造远程运维系统设计与试验平台研究

针对电机智能制造远程运维的需求,设计了基于云平台的电机智能制造远程运维系统。从远程运维系统的整体架构、信息架构及试验验证平台等方面进行了详细阐述。远程运维系统可以对电机制造过程和现场应用过程中的电机参数信息进行实时采集,实现电机全生命周期的运维管理。平台的应用有助于企业提高电机生产质量,减少了电机运维成本,加快了电机运维服务响应速度,提升了售后服务水平,提高了电机的智能制造水平。