Integrated Health Monitoring and Fast on-Line Actuator Reconfiguration Enhancement (IHM-FLARE) System for Air Vehicles, Phase I

SSCI proposes to develop innovative algorithms for the integration of Health Monitoring (HM) subsystem with the existing FLARE (Fast on-Line Actuator Reconfiguration Enhancement) system that achieves rapid stabilization of the closed-loop flight control system in the presence of flight-critical failures. While both systems generate on-line estimates of the failure-related paramaters, the HM system can generate false failure information, while the FLARE system may result in poor performance in subsequent flight regimes if its parameter estimates are far from their true values. The main idea is to combine the failure parameter estimates from the HM and FLARE systems to assure robustness to false alarms, missed detections and detection delays in the HM system, and to use the combined estimate in the adaptive reconfigurable control law to assure the desired closed-loop performance. In order to achieve the project objectives, we plan to carry out the following tasks in Phase I: (i) Modify F/A-18 aircraft simulation to test the feasibility of the proposed approach; (ii) Develop the IHM-FLARE architecture and algorithms; and (iii) Evaluate the performance of the flight control system under false failure information. Phase II will result in algorithm enhancements, and implementation and testing using high-fidelity and piloted F/A-18 simulations. Boeing Phantom Works (Mr. James Urnes, Sr.) will provide technical and commercialization support throughout the project.

This is a mature technology (TRL 7+) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

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