Within systems health management, prognostics focuses on predicting the remaining useful life of a system. In the model-based prognostics paradigm, physics-based models are constructed that describe the operation of a system, and how it fails. Such approaches consist of an estimation phase, in which the health state of the system is first identified, and a prediction phase, in which the health state is projected forward in time to determine the end of life. Centralized solutions to these problems are often computationally expensive, do not scale well as the size of the system grows, and introduce a single point of failure. In this paper, we propose a novel distributed model-based prognostics scheme that formally describes how to decompose both the estimation and prediction problems into computationally-independent local subproblems whose solutions may be easily composed into a global solution. The decomposition of the prognostics problem is achieved through structural decomposition of the underlying models. The decomposition algorithm creates from the global system model a set of local submodels suitable for prognostics. Computationally independent local estimation and prediction problems are formed based on these local submodels, resulting in a scalable distributed prognostics approach that allows the local subproblems to be solved in parallel, thus offering increases in computational efficiency. Using a centrifugal pump as a case study, we perform a number of simulation-based experiments to demonstrate the distributed approach, compare the performance with a centralized approach, and establish its scalability.

Diagnosis and prognosis are necessary tasks for system reconfiguration and fault-adaptive control in complex systems. Diagnosis consists of detec- tion, isolation and identification of faults, while prognosis consists of prediction of the remain- ing useful life of systems. This paper presents an integrated model-based distributed diagnosis and prognosis framework, where system decomposi- tion is used to perform the diagnosis and prog- nosis tasks in a distributed way. We show how different submodels can be automatically con- structed to solve the local diagnosis and prog- nosis problems. We illustrate our approach us- ing a simulated four-wheeled rover for different fault scenarios. Our experiments show that our approach correctly performs fault diagnosis and prognosis in a robust manner.

Diagnosis and prognosis are necessary tasks for system re- configuration and fault-adaptive control in complex systems. Diagnosis consists of detection, isolation and identification of faults, while prognosis consists of prediction of the remain- ing useful life of systems. This paper presents a novel inte- grated framework for model-based distributed diagnosis and prognosis, where system decomposition is used to enable the diagnosis and prognosis tasks to be performed in a distributed way. We show how different submodels can be automati- cally constructed to solve the local diagnosis and prognosis problems. We illustrate our approach using a simulated four- wheeled rover for different fault scenarios. Our experiments show that our approach correctly performs distributed fault diagnosis and prognosis in an efficient and robust manner.

Systems health monitoring is essential in guar- anteeing the safe, efficient, and correct opera- tion of complex engineered systems. Diagnosis, which consists of detection, isolation and identi- fication of faults; and prognosis, which consists of prediction of the remaining useful life of com- ponents, subsystems, or systems; constitute sys- tems health monitoring. This paper presents an integrated model-based diagnostic and prognos- tic framework, where we make use of a com- mon modeling paradigm to model both the nom- inal and faulty behavior in all aspects of systems health monitoring. We illustrate our approach us- ing a simulated propellant loading system that in- cludes tanks, valves, and pumps.

Prognostics is crucial to providing reliable condition-based maintenance decisions. To obtain accurate predictions of component life, a variety of sensors are often needed. However, it is typically difficult to add enough sensors for reliable prognosis, due to system constraints such as cost and weight. Model-based prognostics helps to offset this problem by exploiting domain knowledge about the system, its components, and how they fail by casting the underlying physical phenomena in a physics-based model that is derived from first principles. We develop a model-based prognostics methodology using particle filters, and investigate the benefits of a model-based approach when sensor sets are diminished. We apply our approach to a detailed physics- based model of a pneumatic valve, and perform comprehensive simulation experiments to demonstrate the robustness of model-based approaches under limited sensing scenarios using prognostics performance metrics.

Distributed prognostics architecture design is an enabling step for efficient implementation of health management systems. A major challenge encountered in such design is formulation of optimal distributed prognostics algorithms. In this paper, we present a distributed GPR based prognostics algorithm whose target platform is a wireless sensor network. In addition to challenges encountered in a distributed implementation, a wireless network poses constraints on communication patterns, thereby making the problem more challenging. The prognostics application that was used to demonstrate our new algorithms is battery prognostics. In order to present trade-offs within different prognostic approaches, we present comparison with the distributed implementation of a particle filter based prognostics for the same battery data.

Model-based prognostics approaches capture system knowl- edge in the form of physics-based models of components that include how they fail. These methods consist of a damage estimation phase, in which the health state of a component is estimated, and a prediction phase, in which the health state is projected forward in time to determine end of life. However, the damage estimation problem is often multi-dimensional and computationally intensive. We propose a model decom- position approach adapted from the diagnosis community, called possible conflicts, in order to both improve the com- putational efficiency of damage estimation, and formulate a damage estimation approach that is inherently distributed. Local state estimates are combined into a global state esti- mate from which prediction is performed. Using a centrifugal pump as a case study, we perform a number of simulation- based experiments to demonstrate the approach.

This chapter reviewed generic prognosis algorithmic approaches and introduced some of the basics associated with probabilistic predictions and a required architecture for performing prognostics on critical aerospace systems. Prognosis is a critical element of a HM system and has the promise to realize major benefits for cost avoidance and safety improvement for fielded systems. It also presents a number of challenges to the HM system designer, primarily due to the need to properly model damage progression and to deal with large-grain uncertainty. Long-term prediction of a fault’s evolution to the point thatmay result in a failure requires means to represent and manage the inherent uncertainty. Moreover, accurate and precise prognosis demands good models of the fault growth and statistically sufficient samples of failure data to assist in training, validating, and fine tuning prognostic algorithms. Prognosis performance metrics, robust algorithms, and test platforms that may provide needed data have been the target of HM researchers in the recent past. Many accomplishments have been reported but major challenges still remain to be addressed. To address the issue of inherent uncertainties that are the aggregate of many unknowns and can result in considerable prediction variability, the concept of adaptive prognosis was introduced. In that case, available, albeit imperfect, information is used to update elements of the prognostic model. Only one of many approaches for accomplishing this was briefly introduced, namely, the particle filter. Other statistical update techniques include Bayesian updating, constrained optimization, and Kalman filtering. The design process is not a trivial process by which features and models are chosen for integration such that the best possible prediction on RUL still is obtained. It takes substantial effort to design systems so that measured data can be fused and used in conjunction with physics-based models to estimate current and future damage states. This is exacerbated when multiple models are employed that may use different feature inputs. The prognosis system must also be capable of intelligently calibrating a priori initial conditions (e.g., humidity, strain, and temperature) and random variable characteristics in an automated yet lucid process.

Prognostics is an emerging concept in condition based maintenance (CBM) of critical systems. Along with developing the fundamentals of being able to confidently predict Remaining Useful Life (RUL), the technology calls for fielded applications as it inches towards maturation. This requires a stringent performance evaluation so that the significance of the concept can be fully exploited. Currently, prognostics concepts lack standard definitions and suffer from ambiguous and inconsistent interpretations. This lack of standards is in part due to the varied end-user requirements for different applications, time scales, available information, domain dynamics, etc. to name a few issues. Instead, the research community has used a variety of metrics based largely on convenience with respect to their respective requirements. Very little attention has been focused on establishing a common ground to compare different efforts. This paper surveys the metrics that are already used for prognostics in a variety of domains including medicine, nuclear, automotive, aerospace, and electronics. It also considers other domains that involve prediction-related tasks, such as weather and finance. Differences and similarities between these domains and health maintenance have been analyzed to help understand what performance evaluation methods may or may not be borrowed. Further, these metrics have been categorized in several ways that may be useful in deciding upon a suitable subset for a specific application. Some important prognostic concepts have been defined using a notational framework that enables interpretation of different metrics coherently. Last, but not the least, a list of metrics has been suggested to assess critical aspects of RUL predictions before they are fielded in real applications.

This chapter presents theoretical and practical aspects associated to the implementation of a combined model-based/data-driven approach for failure prognostics based on particle filtering algorithms, in which the current esti- mate of the state PDF is used to determine the operating condition of the system and predict the progression of a fault indicator, given a dynamic state model and a set of process measurements. In this approach, the task of es- timating the current value of the fault indicator, as well as other important changing parameters in the environment, involves two basic steps: the predic- tion step, based on the process model, and an update step, which incorporates the new measurement into the a priori state estimate. This framework allows to estimate of the probability of failure at future time instants (RUL PDF) in real-time, providing information about time-to- failure (TTF) expectations, statistical confidence intervals, long-term predic- tions; using for this purpose empirical knowledge about critical conditions for the system (also referred to as the hazard zones). This information is of paramount significance for the improvement of the system reliability and cost-effective operation of critical assets, as it has been shown in a case study where feedback correction strategies (based on uncertainty measures) have been implemented to lengthen the RUL of a rotorcraft transmission system with propagating fatigue cracks on a critical component. Although the feed- back loop is implemented using simple linear relationships, it is helpful to provide a quick insight into the manner that the system reacts to changes on its input signals, in terms of its predicted RUL. The method is able to manage non-Gaussian pdf’s since it includes concepts such as nonlinear state estimation and confidence intervals in its formulation. Real data from a fault seeded test showed that the proposed framework was able to anticipate modifications on the system input to lengthen its RUL. Results of this test indicate that the method was able to successfully suggest the correction that the system required. In this sense, future work will be focused on the development and testing of similar strategies using different input-output uncertainty metrics.