A MULTIDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH APPROACH TO ROTORCRAFT HEALTH AND USAGE MONITORING

An in-depth literature survey of the state of the art of rotorcraft condition based maintenance is conducted. This survey describes health monitoring in baseline and HUMS equipped rotorcraft. Recent research developments in the area of health and usage monitoring and condition based maintenance are also summarized. Also described are the research efforts at The Pennsylvania State University aimed at developing a systems level approach for a predictive monitoring. The research includes sensor and sensing systems, signal processing, multi-sensor data fusion, system dynamic modeling, micro-mechanical failure modeling, and system architecture studies. The systems level approach used addresses the processing flow from sensors to signal processing, approximate reasoning and ultimately the display of information and maintenance recommendations.