Game-changing opportunities abound for the application of vehicle health
management (VHM) across multiple transportation-related sectors, but key
unresolved issues continue to impede progress. VHM technology is based upon the
broader field of advanced analytics. Much of traditional analytics efforts to
date have been largely descriptive in nature and offer somewhat limited value
for large-scale enterprises. Analytics technology becomes increasingly valuable
when it offers predictive results or, even better, prescriptive results, which
can be used to identify specific courses of action. It is this focus on action
which takes analytics to a higher level of impact, and which imbues it with the
potential to materially impact the success of the enterprise. Artificial
intelligence (AI), specifically machine learning technology, shows future
promise in the VHM space, but it is not currently adequate by itself for
high-accuracy analytics. The recent push for health-ready
components offers hope in resolving some of the issues slowing the
implementation of VHM technology. Health-ready components are those components
that provide the necessary functionality or information to allow them to be
gracefully integrated into an overall VHM solution. Our primary focus area in
this SAE EDGE™ Research Report is on maintaining the health of vehicles in
various transportation sectors with the greatest content coming from automotive.
Tremendous synergies can be achieved by applying these very broad concepts from
automotive to aerospace and other sectors, and vice versa. As will be seen,
these concepts are also important for key emerging product features and for the
manufacturing systems that produce the vehicles. The barriers impeding progress
are organizational, historical, technological, and legal, among others. We offer
some insights into how these barriers arose with some potential courses of
action to mitigate them as well as to stimulate further discussion.
NOTE: SAE EDGE™ Research Reports are intended to identify and illuminate key
issues in emerging, but still unsettled, technologies of interest to the
mobility industry. The goal of SAE EDGE™ Research Reports is to stimulate
discussion and work in the hope of promoting and speeding resolution of
identified issues. SAE EDGE™ Research Reports are not intended to resolve the
issues they identify or close any topic to further scrutiny.