The aim of this study is to propose an alternative approach in prognostics for airborne avionics system in order to enhance maintenance process and aircraft availability. The objectives are to analyse the dependency of avionic systems for fault propagation behaviour degradation, research and develop methods to predict the remaining useful life of avionics Line Replaceable Units (LRU), research and develop methods to evaluate and predict the degradation performances of avionic systems, and lastly to develop software simulation systems to evaluate methods developed. One of the many stakeholders in the aircraft lifecycle includes the Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) industry. The predictable logistics process to some degree as an outcome of IVHM gives benefit to the MRO industry. In this thesis, a new integrated numerical methodology called ‘System Level Airborne Avionic Prognostics’ or SLAAP is developed; looking at a top level solution in prognostics. Overall, this research consists of two main elements. One is to thoroughly understand and analyse data that could be utilised. Secondly, is to apply the developed methodology using the enhanced prognostic methodology. Readily available fault tree data is used to analyse the dependencies of each component within the LRUs, and performance were simulated using the linear Markov Model to estimate the time to failure. A hybrid approach prognostics model is then integrated with the prognostics measures that include environmental factors that contribute to the failure of a system, such as temperature. This research attempts to use data that is closest to the data available in the maintenance repair and overhaul industry. Based on a case study on Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System (EGPWS), the prognostics methodology developed showed a sufficiently close approximation to the Mean Time Before Failure (MTBF) data supplied by the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM). This validation gives confidence that the proposed methodology will achieve its objectives and it should be further developed for use in the systems design process.

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / Today, there is no way to ensure that the personnel working within the cockpit of an aircraft in flight are authorized to be there. The primary goal of this thesis is to propose a hypothetical design for the use of a nonintrusive mechanism on the flight deck of an aircraft to provide continuous or periodic authentication of authorized aircraft personnel. The mechanism should answer questions such as: "Is the person who is flying the plane actually the person who they say they are?" and "Is the correct person in control of the aircraft throughout the whole flight segment?" We will investigate biometrics as a possible security mechanism. In this thesis, various biometric methods are examined and their application in the flight deck is shown. Studies that have been conducted on real biometric devices are examined and their results are reported. Also examined are the current practices and procedures that take place in the flight deck, so that the proposed designs can be understood to not interfere with current activities therein. Two biometric solutions (i.e. proposed designs) to provide continuous or periodic authentication of authorized personnel in the flight deck are introduced. The proposed designs are general and can be used with different types of biometric device(s), and can be extended to include multi-biometrics. / Naval Postgraduate School author (civilian).

L’électronique embarquée dans l’aéronautique, couramment appelé avionique, est chargée d’effectuer des tâches critiques et doit présenter une fiabilité élevée. La technologie Complementary Metal Oxyde Semiconductor (CMOS) est couramment utilisée pour réaliser des composants critiques, comme des mémoires. Les composants CMOS sont susceptibles à deux types d’erreurs : les dégradations liées au vieillissement et les évènements singuliers causés par les particules cosmiques. Or, les conditions d’utilisation de l’avionique renforcent la fréquence d’occurrence de ces deux types d’erreurs. Le vieillissement consiste, pour les composants CMOS, en la dégradation de ses interfaces métal/oxyde et oxyde/semi-conducteur au cours de sa durée de vie. Les composants avioniques subissent un vieillissement accéléré de par leur condition d’utilisation intensive. Le rayonnement cosmique est composé de particules énergétiques d’origine extrasolaire. Certaines de ces particules sont susceptibles d’interagir un composant électronique et d’y déposer de l’énergie, cela peut causer une erreur appelée évènement singulier. L’avionique est particulièrement concernée par cette problématique car ces évènements peuvent être critiques et qu’elle rencontre un flux élevé de particules.Auparavant, la sensibilité aux radiations était considérée comme indépendante du vieillissement. Seulement, les évolutions des technologies CMOS nous amènent à remettre en cause cette hypothèse. Afin d’étudier ce nouveau phénomène, une méthode de modélisation a été développée. Celle-ci couple la modélisation des évènements singuliers à une modélisation électrique circuit du vieillissement. Elle permet d’effectuer des simulations sur un circuit mémoire spécifique dans des environnements radiatifs variés. De ces simulations ressortent l’influence de certains paramètres électriques, qui permettent de proposer une simulation opérationnelle appliquée à l’avionique. / CMOS technologies used in avionics are prone to both aging and soft error caused by cosmic rays. The ongoing technology scaling has improved the radiation sensitivity of memory cells while the contribution of degradations mechanisms remained unchanged. Considering this trend, the hypothesis that radiation sensitivity does not change over the lifetime of a component must be challenged. In order to do so, a modelling methodology is proposed. It is based on an existing radiation modelling device and includes an electrical aging modelling. This modelling is used to characterize the aging impact on radiation sensitivity of several memory cells under different radiative environment. The impact of diverse electrical parameters is noted and an operative avionics study is finally proposed.

Dans l'ingénierie avionique, les tests d'intégration sont cruciaux : ils permettent de s'assurer du bon comportement d'un avion avant son premier vol, ils sont nécessaires au processus de certification et permettent des tests de non-régression à chaque nouvelle version d'un système, d'un logiciel ou d'un matériel. La conception d'un test d'intégration coûte cher car elle mêle la réalisation de la procédure, le paramétrage de nombreux outils couplés au banc de test ainsi que l'adressage des interfaces du système testé. Avec des procédures de test écrites en langage naturel, l'interprétation des instructions d'un test lors de son rejeu manuel peut provoquer des erreurs coûteuses à corriger, en raison notamment des actions précises à entreprendre lors de l'exécution d'une instruction de test. La formalisation et l'automatisation de ces procédures permettraient aux équipes de testeurs de se concentrer sur la réalisation de nouveaux tests exploratoires et sur la mise au point de tels systèmes au plus tôt. Or, un système avionique est composé de plus d'une centaine de systèmes embarqués, chacun concernant des compétences spécifiques. Notre contribution est alors un framework orchestrant les langages de test dédiés à l'intégration de systèmes avioniques dans une vision Agile. Nous introduisons tout d'abord le concept de langage spécifique à un domaine (Domain Specific Language ou DSL) et montrons comment nous l'utilisons pour la formalisation des procédures de test dédiées à un type de système particulier. Ces langages devront pouvoir être utilisés par des testeurs avioniques qui n'ont pas forcément de compétences en informatique. Ils permettent l'automatisation des tests d'intégration, tout en conservant l'intention du test dans la description des procédures. Puis, nous proposons l'approche BDD (Behavior Driven Development) pour valider l'intégration de systèmes par scénarios comportementaux décrivant le comportement attendu de l'avion. Nous nommons Domain Specific Test Languages (DSTL) les langages utilisés par les testeurs. A chaque système (ATA ou Air Transport Association of America) correspond un DSTL métier. Un premier DSTL concernant les systèmes de régulation de l'air a été développé entièrement en tant que preuve du concept à partir de procédures existantes pseudo-formalisées. L'expérimentation s'est poursuivie avec les calculateurs standardisés IMA (Integrated Modular Avionic) pour lesquels les procédures de test sont décrites en langage naturel et sont donc non automatisables. A partir d'un corpus de procédures, nous proposons un premier processus empirique d'identification des patrons de phrases peuplant un DSTL. Le corpus fourni est composé de dix procédures totalisant 108 chapitres de test et 252 tests ou sous-tests comportant au total 3708 instructions pour 250 pages Word. Rendre agile ces tests d'intégration consiste à proposer une approche collaborative pour formaliser un DSTL que ce soit pour les patrons de phrase de la grammaire concrète ou pour les patrons de transformations vers des langages exécutables. / In avionics engineering, integration tests are crucials: they allow to ensure the right behavior of an airplane before his first flight, they are needed to the certification process and they allow non-regression testing for each new version of a system, of a software or of a hardware. The design of an integration test is expensive because it involves the implementation of the procedure, the configuration of tools of the bench and the setup of the interfaces of the system under test. With procedure written in natural language, the interpretation of statements of a test during the manual execution can lead to mistakes that are expensive to fix due to accurate actions needed to perform a statement. The formalization and the automation of those procedures allow testers team to focus on the implementation of new test cases. First of all, we introduce Domain Specific Language (DSL) and show how we use it to formalize tests procedures dedicated to a kind of system. Those languages should be able to be use by avionic testers which do not necessarily have programming skills. They allow test automation, while maintaining test intention in the test description. Then, we proposed a BDD (Behavior Driven Development) approach to validate the integration of systems thanks to behavioral scenarios describing the expected behavior of the airplane. Our contribution is a framework which orchestrate DSLs dedicated to integration test of avionic systems in an Agile vision. We named Domain Specific Test Languages (DSTL), languages used by expert testers. For each system (ATA ou Air Transport Association of America) corresponds a DSTL business. A first DSTL about the validation of airflow control systems has been developed as a proof of concept from existing procedures pseudo-formalized. The experimentation has been continued with IMA (Integrated Modular Avionic) calculators for which test procedures are written in natural language and thus are not automatable. From a corpus of procedures, we propose a first empirical process to identify sentence patterns composing the DSTL. The corpus provided is composed by ten procedures totaling 108 test chapters and 252 tests or subtests involving 3708 statements for a total of 250 Word pages. Make Agile integration tests in this context consist to propose a collaborative approach to formalize a DSTL and to integrate it in the orchestration framework to generate automatically the glu code.

Thesis. 1975. M.S.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. / Includes bibliographical references. / M.S.

Master of Engineering (Research) / This thesis, by developing a Miniature Aerial Vehicle (MAV) hovering platform, presents a practical solution to allow researchers and students to implement their theoretical methods for guidance and navigation in the real world. The thesis is not concerned with the development of guidance and navigation algorithms, nor is it concerned with the development of external sensors. There have been some recent advances in guidance and navigation towards developing algorithms and simple sensors for MAVs. The task of developing a platform to test such advancements is the subject of this thesis. It is considered a difficult and time consuming process due to the complexities of autonomous flight control and the strict size, weight and computational requirements of this type of system. It would be highly beneficial to be able to buy a platform specifically designed for this task that already possesses autonomous hovering capability and the expansion connectivity for interfacing your own custom developed sensors and algorithms. Many biological and computer scientists would jump at the opportunity to maximize their research by real world implementation. The development of such a system is not a trivial task. It requires a great deal of understanding in a broad range of fields including; Aeronautical, Microelectronic, Mechanical, Computer and Embedded Software Engineering in order to create a successful prototype. The challenge of this thesis was to design a research platform to enable easy implementation of external sensors and guidance algorithms, in a real world environment for research and education. The system is designed so it could be used for a broad range of testing experiments. After extensive research in current MAV and avionics design it became obvious in several areas the best available products were not sufficient to meet the needs of the proposed platform. Therefore it was necessary to custom design and build; sensors, a data acquisition system and a servo controller. The latter two products are available for sale by Jimonics (www.jimonics.com). It was then necessary to develop a complete flight control system with integrated sensors, processor and wireless communications network which is called ‘The MicroBrain’. ‘The MicroBrain’ board measures only 45mm x 35mm x 11mm and weighs ~11 grams. The coaxial contra-rotating MAV platform design provides a high level of mechanical stability to help minimise the control system complexity. The platform was highly modified from a commercially available remotely controlled helicopter. The system incorporates a novel collision protection system that was designed to also double as a mounting place for external sensors around its perimeter. The platform equipped with ‘The MicroBrain’ is capable of fully autonomous hover. This provides a great base for testing guidance and navigational sensors and algorithms by decoupling the difficult task of platform design and low-level stability control. By developing a platform with these capabilities the researcher can now focus on the guidance and navigation task, as the difficulties in developing a custom platform have been taken care of. This therefore promotes a faster evolution of guidance and navigational control algorithms for MAVs.

Based on the R&D roadmap, market demand, supply chain framework, economy of scale, clientele distribution, and manufacturing strategies of medium and small-size Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) industry in Japan, Korea, Taiwan and China, this thesis aims to explore the possibility of Taiwanese medium and small-size LCD manufacturers in acquiring global ODM & OEM contracts, and identify the competitive advantages and disadvantages of a case company - TPO. By using the Porter¡¦s five force model and the SWOT analysis, we have found the following: 1. Technology research and development: The case company does not have a clear road map. As jobs are roughly defined and randomly delegated among R&D and production units, they cannot be effectively coordinated to meet future market demands. 2. Product development: The speed of product development and problem-shooting does not meet the requirements of ¡§time to market¡¨, which has caused the recent loss of major customers. 3. Supply chain: The case company has not established long-term partnerships with its material suppliers and supplier selection is primarily based on low unit price instead of in strong commitment to elevate capability or improve quality. 4. Production specialty and cost: The production facilities of the case company are widely distributed in ChuNan, NanJing, Shanghai, and Osaka-Kobe. The overall production costs are higher than its rivals and the back-end production capacity does not meet customer requirements in price and quantity. 5. Quality management: Most long-term clients of the case company are located in Taiwan or China. Lack of direct international experiences, the case company has not been able to meet the high quality requirment of the global tier one players. In this thesis, the following directions are suggested: 1. To enhance labor quality in China: The quality of its Chinese labor force should be elevated to shorten production processes for cost reduction. 2. To upgrade supply chain management by taking advantage of direct flights between the Taiwan and China: With reduced costs in transportation and inventory brought by direct cargo flight, the case company can adopt the strategy to ¡§manufacture in the vicinity of end-market¡¨. 3. To use vertical integration or horizontal alliance in its supply chain to improve its cost structure: By enhancing cooperation and job delegation among its group members and/or OEM providers, the case company can effectively lower the investment costs and inventory impairment risks. 4. To increase the economic scale of its production facilities: Each production facility should be assigned for a specialized production line to make the best economic scale. For instance, Shanghai Fab specializes in car appliances and NanJing Fab in non-Automotive LCD and Avionics LCD products, while Chunan Fab is mainly for the production of the front-end aerospace products. 5. To elevate the overall quality awareness: Quality management should be adopted from the very beginning of product design and specification. Meanwhile, DFMEA and PFMEA should be persisted for overall quality improvement.

No description available.

Master of Engineering (Research) / This thesis, by developing a Miniature Aerial Vehicle (MAV) hovering platform, presents a practical solution to allow researchers and students to implement their theoretical methods for guidance and navigation in the real world. The thesis is not concerned with the development of guidance and navigation algorithms, nor is it concerned with the development of external sensors. There have been some recent advances in guidance and navigation towards developing algorithms and simple sensors for MAVs. The task of developing a platform to test such advancements is the subject of this thesis. It is considered a difficult and time consuming process due to the complexities of autonomous flight control and the strict size, weight and computational requirements of this type of system. It would be highly beneficial to be able to buy a platform specifically designed for this task that already possesses autonomous hovering capability and the expansion connectivity for interfacing your own custom developed sensors and algorithms. Many biological and computer scientists would jump at the opportunity to maximize their research by real world implementation. The development of such a system is not a trivial task. It requires a great deal of understanding in a broad range of fields including; Aeronautical, Microelectronic, Mechanical, Computer and Embedded Software Engineering in order to create a successful prototype. The challenge of this thesis was to design a research platform to enable easy implementation of external sensors and guidance algorithms, in a real world environment for research and education. The system is designed so it could be used for a broad range of testing experiments. After extensive research in current MAV and avionics design it became obvious in several areas the best available products were not sufficient to meet the needs of the proposed platform. Therefore it was necessary to custom design and build; sensors, a data acquisition system and a servo controller. The latter two products are available for sale by Jimonics (www.jimonics.com). It was then necessary to develop a complete flight control system with integrated sensors, processor and wireless communications network which is called ‘The MicroBrain’. ‘The MicroBrain’ board measures only 45mm x 35mm x 11mm and weighs ~11 grams. The coaxial contra-rotating MAV platform design provides a high level of mechanical stability to help minimise the control system complexity. The platform was highly modified from a commercially available remotely controlled helicopter. The system incorporates a novel collision protection system that was designed to also double as a mounting place for external sensors around its perimeter. The platform equipped with ‘The MicroBrain’ is capable of fully autonomous hover. This provides a great base for testing guidance and navigational sensors and algorithms by decoupling the difficult task of platform design and low-level stability control. By developing a platform with these capabilities the researcher can now focus on the guidance and navigation task, as the difficulties in developing a custom platform have been taken care of. This therefore promotes a faster evolution of guidance and navigational control algorithms for MAVs.

Thesis (M.S.)--Ohio University, June, 1989. / Title from PDF t.p.