A methodology for real time fault detection, isolation and correction

Mission critical timelines and availability requirements of large, complex ground stations demand some form of a distributed real-time system with an embedded rule-based expert advisor for recognizing and responding to changes within the system. The failure management optimization support system (FMOSS), which develops unique sets of status values, is discussed. The live status returned from the segment hardware forms a set of values, or signature vector, for each equipment string. The signature vector is compared to the signature that occurs when the equipment string is operational. If the processed status signatures do not match the signature that indicates the equipment string is operational, the expert advisor notifies the command center that a fault has been detected. The expert advisor continues processing until it has found a match from the pool of preengineered failure-mode signature vectors. Based on the match, Boolean logic is used to perform fault isolation and correction, with results provided to the command center.<>