NASA SBIR 2005 Solicitation

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Scientific Systems Co Inc
500 West Cummings Park, Suite 3000
Woburn ,MA 01801 - 6580
(781) 933 - 5355

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Jovan D Boskovic
jovan@ssci.com
500 West Cummings Park, Suite 3000
Woburn, MA  01801 -6580
(781) 933 - 5355

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
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.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
Health Monitoring systems are becoming increasingly complex, and are commonly well suited for accommodation of a limited class of single failures since their emphasis is on failure detection and identification. On the other hand, our FLARE system is well suited for accommodation of severe multiple simultaneous failure but may result in poor long-term performance. Effective integration of these systems will enable efficient usage of the health monitoring information to assure robustness of the system under a variety of false failure information scenarios, and improved system performance. Immediate NASA applications are in civil aviation, and the development of an effective IHM-FLARE system is consistent with the goals and objectives of the NASA Flight Safety Program. Other important NASA applications are in the area of spacecraft control, and Space Exploration where an efficient IHM-FLARE system will decrease the crew workload and assure the desired system performance for the Crew Exploration Vehicles (CEV).

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (LIMIT 150 WORDS)
The proposed system has substantial potential in commercial aviation where effective control reconfiguration techniques that are robust to false failure information can substantially improve flight safety. Immediate applications exist in military aviation where the advanced fighter and transport aircraft are already equipped with sophisticated health monitoring systems. Other important applications are in the area of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) where effective integration of health monitoring and reconfigurable control that assures robustness to false failure information can substantially increase the autonomy of the vehicle. Related applications are envisioned in the areas of robotics, and unmanned ground and underwater vehicles.

NASA's technology taxonomy has been developed by the SBIR-STTR program to disseminate awareness of proposed and awarded R/R&D in the agency. It is a listing of over 100 technologies, sorted into broad categories, of interest to NASA.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING

Guidance, Navigation, and Control Pilot Support Systems