The C-130 Hercules carrier was used as a test for the Integrated System Health Management software in 2012. Image credit: U.S. Air Force
“Integrated system-health” engines will be increasingly seen helping machines keep track of their own performance, CEMSol LLC engineering vice president David Cirulli said in a story from NASA.
Critical systems like those on board spacecraft could gain a huge advantage by being a bit more self-aware, able to ‘verbalize’ their own possible failings, Cirulli said in an interview posted Thursday. CEMSol’s Integrated System Health Management software has been used at the NASA Ames Research Center since 2003, and was able to help engineers model data for experimental tests automatically.
“Historically, system-health management has been an afterthought,” Cirulli said. “In the future, things will be much more reliable, durable, and dependable, because they’ll have a much better understanding of their own behavior.”
In 2012 the technology was tested on the Lockheed Martin C-130 airplane, which had a history of bleed valve errors. Lockheed made up for their $70,000 investment tenfold due to reduced need for maintenance and fewer delays before flights.
The program comes in two parts: a desktop application, which does the actual analysis and flags any changes that could interfere with normal operation, and a developer kit that lets software developers choose from various-real time monitoring capabilities.
The Integrated System Health Management system is also used to make sure humans don’t get sick, keeping an eye on the carbon analyzer used to make sure the drinking water on board the International Space Station is safe.
The system was highlighted as part of NASA’s “Spinoffs,” profiles of tech likely to find wide use in the private sector after having worked within NASA and its related labs.
Filed Under: Rapid prototyping
