Bright prognosis for IVHM

Partnerships, web tools help integrated vehicle health monitoring (IVHM) extend its reach.

The drive to reduce life-cycle costs is prompting a takeoff for integrated vehicle health monitoring (IVHM), which combines sensors and electronic controllers to check parts and predict when they might fail. Vendors are teaming up to develop IVHM systems that cover more and more of the aircraft's components.

The concepts and initial implementations of IVHM have been around for more than a decade. Also called a health and usage monitoring system, it fits well with the trend of condition-based maintenance.