Next generation prognostics and health management for unmanned aircraft

The importance of real-time prognostics and health monitoring (PHM) for mission critical systems has increased as the users of these systems demand improved operational availability, greater reliability, increased safety, and reduced cost. Defining requirements for PHM systems, however, has always been a challenge. Huge improvements in cost, schedule, and customer satisfaction can be realized by applying the concepts of Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) to the specification of PHM system requirements. Meanwhile, model-based reasoning methodologies have played an important role in the implementation of PHM systems. The authors have been applying this two-tiered approach to specifying and implementing next generation PHM systems for various mission critical system users. In this paper, we discuss the specific application of RCM focused PHM design and implementation for use in unmanned, remotely piloted aircraft (RPA).