An experiment in encapsulation in system diagnosis

The maintenance of fighter aircraft has become increasingly problematic as evidenced by the numerous studies and research and development projects (both contracted and independent) that have addressed the problem in recent years. As a result of these efforts, the “easy” problems have, at least to some extent, been attacked and remedied. The more intractable problems remain. Because of this, the sponsors of the Aircraft Maintenance Integrated Diagnostics Demonstration (AMIDD) project perceived that the application of traditional methods used to perform maintenance and diagnostics have begun to produce diminishing returns. Thus, non-traditional methods using advanced diagnostics appear to hold the most promise for alleviating the difficult diagnostic problems currently faced. In this paper, we describe the initial results of an AMIDD experiment with advanced diagnostics that demonstrate some potential improvements for aircraft maintenance associated with using these methods