ABSTRACT
Integrated vehicle health management (IVHM) spans the entire life cycle of the vehicle, including design, operation (as already discussed), and improvements. Not just focused on the vehicle itself, IVHM must also address the supporting infrastructure necessary to operate the vehicle. In the middle layer, IVHM looks across all subsystems to assess overall vehicle health. It is important that subsystem health management information from all subsystems be made visible to IVHM at the vehicle level, enabling IVHM to detect and isolate faults that may occur “between” subsystems or whose effects impact multiple subsystems. Finally, at the highest layer, vehicle health and operations are integrated to maximize the benefits to the overall system. Current-generation IVHM solutions are constrained by the fact that high-fidelity access to many of the IVHM functions requires one to be in close proximity of the vehicle. VHM determines health state based on the use of diagnostics, prognostics, and intelligent reasoners, which work in cooperation to detect faults.
