Systems Health Technology at NASA Ames Research Center | Kai Goebel | Talks at Google | Summary and Q&A

TL;DR

System Health Management (SHM) is a systematic engineering discipline used to monitor, predict, and mitigate potential failures in aerospace systems.

Key Insights

• 🦺 System Health Management (SHM) is essential for ensuring the functionality and safety of aerospace systems.
• ⌛ SHM involves monitoring, modeling, recognizing anomalies, predicting time to failure, and mitigating potential failures.
• ✊ SHM can be applied to various aerospace systems such as rockets, rovers, aircraft, and power plants.
• 🤝 Challenges in SHM include dealing with software failures and implementing autonomous Verification and Validation.

Transcript

FEMALE SPEAKER: OK. Thank you so much for coming to our most recent series of NASA talks. Today we have the wonderful Doctor Kai Goebel, if I'm pronouncing that correctly. Kai holds an MS and Ph.D and degrees in mechanical engineering from Cal Berkeley. He's the Director of Prognostic Center of Excellence at NASA Ames right down the street from us,... Read More

Questions & Answers

Q: What is System Health Management (SHM)?

SHM is an engineering discipline used to monitor, predict, and mitigate potential failures in aerospace systems. It involves monitoring the behavior of systems, recognizing anomalies, predicting time to failure, and taking actions to mitigate potential failures.

Q: How is SHM applied in aerospace applications?

SHM can be applied to various aerospace systems, including rockets, rovers, aircraft, and power plants. It involves monitoring system parameters, analyzing data using mathematical models, and making predictions about the health and performance of the equipment.

Q: What are some challenges in implementing SHM for software failures?

Software failures can be challenging to predict and monitor. Strategies for dealing with software failures include designing out as many faults as possible, monitoring system parameters such as memory usage and communications, and exploring methods for autonomous Verification and Validation (V&V) to ensure the reliability of software.

Q: What kind of hardware is used for on-board health monitoring in aerospace applications?

On-board health monitoring hardware can vary depending on the specific application and the level of computational intensity required. In some cases, older, radiation-hardened processors may be used for on-board monitoring and analysis. However, there is a need for more resources to be made available on-board to accommodate the growing demands of SHM in aerospace systems.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• System Health Management (SHM) is crucial in aerospace applications to ensure the functionality and safety of equipment.

• SHM involves monitoring, modeling behavior, recognizing anomalous behavior, predicting time to failure, and mitigating potential failures.

• SHM can be applied to various systems, including rockets, rovers, aircraft, and power plants.