SBIR-STTR Award

The project Work Plan will incorporate software and sensor technology developments in the general technology areas of Sensors, Decision Science and Computer Science in a Predictive Maintenance architecture. Since a significant amount of this work is commercial, the project will seek out the best the commercial world has to offer within the limitations of integrating it into the military environment. A balance work plan will be pursued that balances algorithms assessment, simulation, sensor assessment, architectural design and systems integration. The work plan restricts the technical effort to algorithms that are sufficiently mature so that a software model can be obtained and integrated into a system simulation. The algorithm trades and design tasks will be complimented by the other system engineering tasks required to translate technology and product capability into military capability

The contractor proposes to design, build and test a Predictive Maintenance Unit (PMU). The PMU is modular maintenance product that detects hardware failures before they happen and cause a mission failure or loss of hardware availability. PMU applies to the maintenance function the same signal processing technology used by advanced ground based sensors and missile seekers for the purpose of detecting subtle changes in hardware or software operation that are an indication of future failures. However, PMU does not require real time operation and can employ bulk processing and non-causal processing to allow the use of low end computers and high level programming tools to make it easier to adapt and reconfigure the PMU to fit different needs. PMU is a mix of COTS hardware and software and product specific software. Multiple environment and electronic measurement sensors are added to tailor the PMU to the system being monitored in a parallel architecture. It monitors without interfering with normal system operation or existing maintenance.

Keywords:
Predictive Maintenance; Logistics