Special Session: PHM in the Aircraft of the Future

Aircraft systems in the future will employ an increasing number of PHM functions. In addition to researching and developing these systems, the PHM community is also developing standards for how to qualify and certify the software and hardware that will be used in future aircraft. As aircraft become “more electric” and “smarter,” the use of PHM will only increase, so the work being done in these committees today will be critical to the incorporation of PHM into the aircraft of tomorrow. This panel will briefly discuss the history of certification of PHM functions in aerospace, what we are doing today, and what the future hold.

1. “Unsupervised Anomaly Detection Using Batteries in Electric Aerial Vehicle Propulsion Test-Bed,” presented by Jubilee Prasad Rao, Global Technology Connection, Inc.
2. “Developing Deep Learning Models for System-Level Remaining Useful Life Predictions: Application to Aircraft Engines,” presented by Timothy Darrah, Vanderbilt University
3. “An Ontology for Prognostics Health Management in Spacecraft Avionics,” presented by Michael Cullen Halvorson, Alabama Burst Energetics eXplorer

The aviation maintenance hangar of the future will be radically different from what we see today. It will have much more automation with robots assisting human inspectors, AI and ML algorithms interpreting damage and assessing corrective actions, augmented reality technology helping maintenance personnel, instantaneous electronic access to manuals, maintenance instructions, “google-map” like repair directions, etc. The Air Force is pioneering many of these methodologies. This panel will describe the technologies that have already been deployed and those that are currently being researched and developed around the world.

List of Panelists:
• Jerome Lacaille, Safran
• Kai Wicke, DLR
• Daniel Wade, Lockheed Martin