Architecture Framework for Fault Management Assessment and Design (AFFMAD)

Architecture Framework for Fault Management Assessment And Design(AFFMAD) provides Fault Management (FM) trade space exploration and rigorous performance constraint checking for FM strategies of complex cyber-physical systems. AFFMAD will assist early evaluation of FM strategies and improve the efficiency of implementing and testing those strategies much earlier in the design process than today. With AFFMAD, FM engineers will be able systematically generate, analyze, and trade-off FM strategies at the system-level within a multi-discipline modeling framework. Focusing on the early design phases will reduce the technical, schedule, and cost risk of Science Mission Directorate (SMD) missions. A key innovation of the AFFMAD approach is to represent the FM models in a form that supports iteration over alternative FM strategies in order to optimize overall mission success. We accomplish this by building abstract FM cyber-physical models, annotating them with both FM characteristics and mission costs (e.g., Size, Weight, and Power (SWAP), latency, throughput), and using external tools to iteratively explore the state space of feasible FM strategies. At each iteration, AFFMAD collects performance and cost information about each alternative in the context of each mission phases as well as the entire mission.

The initial target application for this work is to support NASA missions that involve Autonomous Rendezvous and Docking (ARD), and specifically the systems engineers who design the FM aspects of the system. However AFFMAD is a FM design tool, and as such, it can be adapted to address any whole system (aircraft, spacecraft, or surface exploration vehicle) or sub-system thereof.

FM is a key strategy used by many industries to increase system dependability, and FM failures are concerns for any organization designing or building life- or mission-critical systems. Other potential government customers include the Army, Air Force, Navy, and Department of Energy. Likely customers from the commercial sector include those in the aviation, process control and medical device industries. DoD system design and development efforts are expected to greatly benefit from the AFFMAD work. AFFMAD will facilitate future Army ground vehicle developments by assisting FM engineers' early evaluation of FM strategies and improving the efficiency of implementing and testing those strategies. AFFMAD will also facilitate Army air vehicle developments. Adventium, as a contractor for the Army JMR program under the FVL initiative, is providing advanced model-based system engineering methods and tools to address early design and defect detection issues. The first new FVL vehicle is likely to be a new medium-lift replacement for BlackHawk and Apache class helicopters to be introduced around 2030. We are helping develop advanced model-based system engineering methods to support both government requirements engineering and supplier developments.

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 4) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

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