Intelligent Automation, Inc. — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: N141-054

Description

Higher-power multi-function phased-array radars typically employ a grid made up of hundreds or thousands of fixed antenna elements, each of which transmits and receives a signal beam. Prognostics and Health Management (PHM), which provides an estimate of the Remaining Useful Life (RUL) of a component, offers the potential to improve system availability while reducing maintenance cost. However, the RUL prediction of phased-array radars is still in its infancy and there are several challenges to develop and implement a PHM system for phased-array radar. First, a typical electronic system has thousands of internal and external circuit points that fail intermittently long before they fail permanently. Second, it is a challenge to minimize the effect of uncertainties on RUL predictions. To address this challenge, we propose to develop a Reliability Analysis-enhanced Prediction System (RAPS) for phased array radar health management. Comparing to other state-of-the-art techniques, RAPS provides a systematic approach to address the RUL prediction for radar system diagnostics and prognostics by taking into account the redundancy of radar system components. The successful implementation of RAPS has the potential to increase availability and reliability of phased array radar systems by detecting and predicting RUL of radar components.