Browse Topic: Maintenance and Aftermarket
ABSTRACT Rubber tracks are now extremely competitive for vehicles up to 50 tons and fully fielded on 39 ton vehicles. They represent the best of what technology can offer for tracked vehicles, in terms of high durability, performance and low life cycle cost. This is mainly attributed to the optimization through the five (5) technological tools described in this paper. Better from its numerous distinctive advantages, rubber tracks can be adapted to suit virtually any specific need. This ductile rubber track technology can be shaped to match today’s requirements, with the help of advanced rubber compounding and computer simulations
ABSTRACT Route planning plays an integral role in mission planning for ground vehicle operations in urban areas. Determining the optimum path through an urban area is a well understood problem for traditional ground vehicles; however, in the case of autonomous unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), additional factors must be considered. For a UGV, perception, rather than mobility, will be the limiting factor in determining operational areas. Current ground vehicle route planning techniques do not take perception concerns into account, and these techniques are not suited for route planning for UGVs. For this study, perception was incorporated into the route planning process by including expected sensor accuracy for GPS, LIDAR, and inertial sensors into the path planning algorithm. The path planner also accounts for additional factors related to UGV performance capabilities that affect autonomous navigation
ABSTRACT This paper is a technology update of the continued leveraging of using the newest vehicle diagnostics system, the Smart Wireless Internal Combustion Engine (SWICE) interface as the Mini-VCS (Vehicle Computer System). The objective is to further enhance Conditioned Based Maintenance Plus (CBM+) secure diagnostics, data logging, prognostics and sensor integration to support improvement of the US military ground vehicle fleet’s uptime to enhance operational readiness. Evolving advancements of the SWICE initiative will be presented, including how the SWICE “At Platform” Test System can readily be deployed as a multiple-use Mini-VCS. The application of the Mini-VCS integrates the best practices of diagnostics and prognostics, coupled with specialized sensor integration, into a solution that optimally benefits the military ground vehicle fleet. These benefits include increased readiness and operational availability, reduced maintenance costs, lower repair part inventory levels
ABSTRACT Simulation is a critical step in the development of autonomous systems. This paper outlines the development and use of a dynamically linked library for the Mississippi State University Autonomous Vehicle Simulator (MAVS). The MAVS is a library of simulation tools designed to allow for real-time, high performance, ray traced simulation capabilities for off-road autonomous vehicles. It includes features such as automated off-road terrain generation, automatic data labeling for camera and LIDAR, and swappable vehicle dynamics models. Many machine learning tools today leverage Python for development. To use these tools and provide an easy to use interface, Python bindings were developed for the MAVS. The need for these bindings and their implementation is described. Citation: C. Hudson, C. Goodin, Z. Miller, W. Wheeler, D. Carruth, “Mississippi State University Autonomous Vehicle Simulation Library”, In Proceedings of the Ground Vehicle Systems Engineering and Technology Symposium
ABSTRACT Product Development (PD) remains a highly uncertain process for both commercial and DoD programs. The presence of multiple stakeholders (e.g., DoD and allied agencies, soldiers/users, PEO, contractors, manufacturing, service, logistics) with varying requirements, preferences, constraints, and evolving priorities make this particularly challenging for the DoD. These risks are well recognized by agencies, and it is widely understood that acquisition is about risk management and not certainties. However, almost all the DoD acquisition processes still require critical reviews, and most importantly, structured decision support for the fuzzy front-end of the acquisition process. What is lacking, are effective decision support tools that explicitly recognize the sequential milestone structure embedded with multi-stakeholder decision making in all acquisition programs. We describe the Resilient Program Management & Development (RPMD) framework to support complex decision making with
In the realm of low-altitude flight power systems, such as electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL), ensuring the safety and optimal performance of batteries is of utmost importance. Lithium (Li) plating, a phenomenon that affects battery performance and safety, has garnered significant attention in recent years. This study investigates the intricate relationship between Li plating and the growth profile of cell thickness in Li-ion batteries. Previous research often overlooked this critical aspect, but our investigation reveals compelling insights. Notably, even during early stage of capacity fade (~ 5%), Li plating persists, leading to a remarkable final cell thickness growth exceeding 20% at an alarming 80% capacity fade. These findings suggest the potential of utilizing cell thickness growth as a novel criterion for qualifying and selecting cells, in addition to the conventional measure of capacity degradation. Monitoring the growth profile of cell thickness can enhance the
ABSTRACT Over the course of typical survivability analyses for underbody blast events, a multitude of individual cases are examined where charge size, charge location relative to the vehicle, and vehicle clearance from the ground are varied, so as to arrive at a comprehensive assessment. While multi-physics computational tools have reduced the expense and difficulty of testing each loading case experimentally, these tools still often require significant execution and wall-clock times to perform the simulations. In efforts to greatly reduce the time required to conduct a holistic survivability analysis, Fast Running Models (FRMs) have been implemented and validated to act as a surrogate for the computationally expensive finite element tools in use today. Built using a small set of simulations, FRMs generate loading data in a matter of seconds, representing a significant improvement in survivability analysis turnaround time
ABSTRACT Predictive analysis of vehicle electrical systems is achievable by combining condition based maintenance (CBM) techniques and testing for statistical significance (TSS). When paired together, these two fundamentally sound sciences quantify the state of health (SOH) for batteries, alternators, starters, and electrical systems. The use of a communication protocol such as SAE J1939 allows for scheduling maintenance based on condition and not a traditional time schedule
ABSTRACT The growing sophistication and emergence of widespread cyber threats today has driven the DOD to place Cyber Resiliency requirements on new and legacy defense systems. The DOD has recently garnered a massive defensive DevSecOps effort aimed at defining structured practices to unify software (Dev), Security (Sec), and operations (Ops) under the umbrella of more OpSec-driven engineering practices. According to the DOD DevSecOps practicum referenced in this document [1], “Practicing DevSecOps provides demonstrable quality and security improvements over the traditional software lifecycle, enabling application security, secure deployments, and secure operations in close alignment with mission objectives.” Modern systems often contain greater networking capability and are therefore more exposed to cyber-threats. Legacy systems were often conceived prior to the field of cyber warfare maturing, resulting in unpatched potential vulnerabilities that could be exploited through trusting
ABSTRACT The M1 Abrams will be the primary heavy combat vehicle for the US military for years to come. Improvements to the M1 that increase reliability and reduce maintenance will have a multi-year payback. The M1 engine intake plenum seal couples the air intake plenum to the turbine inlet, and has opportunities for improvement to reduce leakage and intake of FOD (foreign object debris) into the engine, which causes damage and premature wear of expensive components
ABSTRACT Materials and parts in complex systems, such as ground vehicles, can suffer from fatigue due to use, age and other stresses experienced during service. It is therefore essential to evaluate damage and predict the remaining life, reliability and safety of the vehicle. This paper describes the design of a wireless system for real-time monitoring of ground vehicles using Lamb waves. The proposed approach integrates sensor technology, signal processing and wireless networking into a single solution for online structural health monitoring (SHM). Lamb wave inspection is accomplished by inexpensive piezoelectric transducer patches (PZT), which are surface-mounted on the critical components of the vehicle without interrupting its operation. Lamb wave scattering from damage is obtained by comparing the recorded signal with the healthy sample and then damage-related features are identified using Probability Diagnostic Imaging (PDI). The problem of multiple Lamb wave modes is addressed
ABSTRACT A toolchain must be functionally cohesive with a business process, especially in technical domains such as complex systems engineering. Despite the industry-wide shift towards model-based digitization within engineering organizations, there is a lack of development in implementing model-based RAMS (Reliability, Availability, Maintenance, Safety) processes. This results in a missed opportunity to create value throughout the entire system lifecycle, from conceptual design to operations. This paper proposes some reasons for this and outlines a framework for evaluating model-based toolchains in the context of the entire Engineering cycle. A model-based architecture for RAMS is proposed and contrastively evaluated with respect to SysML. Key use cases are identified, and benefits are demonstrated using Maintenance Aware Design Environment Software. Citation: J. Langton, S. Hilton, “Iterative Co-Design Of Organizational Processes and Toolchains For Model-Based Reliability
ABSTRACT The value of modularity in ground vehicles to the Army and other services has been a topic of much debate for decades. There are instances of successful implementations of modularity in current ground vehicle programs of record. However, these implementations have generally been accomplished through swappable mission equipment rather than large-scale transformation of the vehicle and its core components. Concurrently, the Army Science and Technology (S&T) community has continued to demonstrate the technical feasibility of large-scale, transformative ground vehicle modularity, but the business case of modularity remains elusive. Decision support tools are needed to enable Army leadership to confidently and holistically assess the right balance between modular and mission-specific (conventional) vehicle platforms. This complex problem needs to address numerous considerations, including total lifecycle cost, mission utility, personnel requirements, and fleet adaptability. In this
ABSTRACT Implementing Prognostic and Predictive Maintenance (PPMx) for the U.S. Army’s ground vehicle fleet requires the design and integration of on-platform predictive analytics. To support the design process, U.S. Army DEVCOM Ground Vehicle Systems Center (GVSC) and Applied Research Laboratory (ARL) Penn State researchers are developing a systematic approach that uses reliability modeling in a guiding role. The key steps of the process are building the initial reliability model from available data (e.g., system diagrams and physical layouts), augmenting with information on observed states and failure modes via subject matter experts, and then conducting trades on additional sensors and algorithms to determine a suitable predictive analytics capability. In this paper we provide an example of this process as applied to an Army ground vehicle, first focusing on a simplified sub-problem to demonstrate the technique, then providing statistics on the large scale process. Citation: M
Many of the “ilities” (Reliability, Maintainability, etc) are afterthoughts in the creation of a specification, and are often relegated to a set of templated boilerplate requirements, that are largely ignored. The Reliability / Robust Design professionals often use a P-Diagram (Parameter Diagram) as a key part of understanding the system under design. A way of integrating the Reliability effort more into the mainstream of the design activity, and give them a stronger voice, is to put their P-Diagram right into the specification, before it gets released to industry. This paper describes the rationale and the manner in which to do this
ABSTRACT A retrofittable intelligent vehicle performance and fuel economy maximization system would have widespread application to military tactical and non-tactical ground vehicles as well as commercial vehicles. Barron Associates, Inc. and Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) recently conducted a research effort in collaboration with the U.S. Army RDECOM to demonstrate the feasibility of a Fuel Usage Monitor and Economizer (FUME) – an open architecture vehicle monitoring and fuel efficiency optimization system. FUME features two primary components: (1) vehicle and engine health monitoring and (2) real-time operational guidance to maximize fuel efficiency and extend equipment life given the current operating conditions. Key underlying FUME technologies include mathematical modeling of dynamic systems, real-time adaptive parameter estimation, model-based diagnostics, and intelligent usage monitoring. The research included demonstration of the underlying FUME technologies applied to a
ABSTRACT In order to assess a design from a supportability perspective early in a technology’s prototyping phase, TARDEC’s Systems Engineering Directorate has established a Design for Supportability (DfS) competency. This competency, under the SE umbrella, encompasses the relationship between Design for Reliability (DfR), Design for Maintainability (DfM), and Design for Logistics (DfL). The combination of DfR, DfM and DfL form a trifecta of knowledge that determines whether a developing technology will: 1) perform its intended function for the complete duration of the mission it’s designed for; 2) be designed in a way to be fixable in a reasonable amount of time using standard tools; 3) be designed to have replaceable parts as accessible as possible; 4) not increase the logistics burden for our men and women in uniform
ABSTRACT Reliability Physics simulations for electronic assemblies has matured to become best practice during specification and design. However, the potential advantages of these simulations to programs and integrators are more far reaching. This paper will explore how the simulations can be used for virtual qualification, reliability assurance, maintenance scheduling and obsolescence management. Citation: Ed Dodd, “Reliability Simulations for Electronic Assemblies: Virtual Qualification, Reliability Assurance, Maintenance Scheduling and Obsolescence Mitigation”, In Proceedings of the Ground Vehicle Systems Engineering and Technology Symposium (GVSETS), NDIA, Novi, MI, Aug. 13-15, 2019
ABSTRACT The Product Director Light Tactical Vehicles (PdD LTV) is responsible for the Army’s High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV) family of vehicles. Due to the large number of variants found throughout the Army plus the continued need for their service into the foreseeable future, the Army has conducted extensive depot recapitalization programs and continues to explore modernization options to sustain enduring requirements. Because competing performance requirements exist and budget constraints demand careful design choices, PdD LTV commissioned the development of a Whole System Trades Analysis Tool (WSTAT) specified for the HMMWV family of vehicles to help gain an analytic understanding of the key performance, cost, risk, and growth tradeoffs inherent within their potential designs. The WSTAT provides a holistic framework for modeling and understanding these tradeoffs. In this paper, the overarching WSTAT methodology is presented along with the specific implementation
ABSTRACT Off-road autonomous navigation poses a challenging problem, as the surrounding terrain is usually unknown, the support surface the vehicle must traverse cannot be considered flat, and environmental features (such as vegetation and water) make it difficult to estimate the support surface elevation. This paper will focus on Robotic Research’s suite of off-road autonomous planning and obstacle avoidance tools. Specifically, this paper will provide an overview of our terrain detection system, which utilizes advanced LADAR processing techniques to provide an estimate of the surface. Additionally, it will describe the kino-dynamic off-road planner which can, in real-time, calculate the optimal route, taking into account the support surface, obstacles sensed in the environment, and more. Finally, the paper will explore how these technologies have been applied to a wide variety of different robotic applications
ABSTRACT Use of the Model-Based Design (MBD) processes is becoming increasingly common in embedded control system software as a means to manage software complexity, improve quality, and reduce development costs. The MBD process can achieve these goals by combining the design, simulation, and implementation of software features into a single, integrated workflow that reduces development effort and allows extensive software testing to be performed in simulation. In order to realize the full benefit of MBD, engineering organizations must invest resources intelligently in the tools, processes, and infrastructure to avoid common mistakes and pitfalls
ABSTRACT The Digital Engineering Environment is new and rapidly changing. It is a complex system with many tools, databases and views. Organizations struggle with how to access their maturity in a new environment. This paper discusses the different aspects of determination of the maturity of architecture model within a Digital Engineering Environment. The intended audience is all levels of system engineers. It will address the characteristics of maturity from content, size and usefulness of architecture models. The goal of this paper is to provide system architecture with tools, process and insight into gaining more productivity and value from architecture models
ABSTRACT This paper describes a software infrastructure made up of tools and libraries designed to assist developers in implementing computational dynamics applications running on heterogeneous and distributed computing environments. Together, these tools and libraries compose a so called Heterogeneous Computing Template (HCT). The underlying theme of the solution approach embraced by HCT is that of partitioning the domain of interest into a number of sub-domains that are each managed by a separate core/accelerator (CPU/GPU) pair. The five components at the core of HCT, which ultimately enable the distributed/heterogeneous computing approach to large-scale dynamical system simulation, are as follows: (a) a method for the geometric domain decomposition; (b) methods for proximity computation or collision detection; (c) support for moving data within the heterogeneous hardware ecosystem to mirror the migration of simulation elements from subdomain to subdomain; (d) parallel numerical
ABSTRACT Modern data loggers of industrial bus networks provide a useful tool to record the bus traffic associated critical vehicle systems, but provide little insight into the impact of maintenance patches on the associated system binary codes and system behaviors. This paper describes an emerging DARPA technology, the Tactical Smart Network Interface Card (TSNIC), that provides a secure base from which to deploy, monitor, and interact with patched binaries. Our TSNIC appliance can take either a passive or active presence on the vehicle bus, obviating the need for a vulnerable JTAG interface, and processes diagnostic messages arriving from the patched binary. These messages can provide a wide range of insights into the behavior of the system. The Tactical Smart NIC represents the next-generation of secure and reliable patching technology for military and heavy industrial systems. It provides a unique way for developers, maintainers, and field engineers to gain a new appreciation for
ABSTRACT This paper discusses the Diagnostics And System Health (DASH) embedded diagnostics software originally developed for use on the M109A7 / M992A3 Family of Vehicles (FoV). The history and background of work completed by the DEVCOM Armaments Center (AC) System Health & Interactive Future Technologies (SHIFT) Division in developing and managing the DASH program are described. The DASH software architecture and design details are also discussed in depth, with a focus on the more recent efforts to adapt DASH to use a generic core software application that can be integrated on a wide variety of current and future ground combat systems to more easily provide embedded diagnostics capability. Citation: A. Ludwig, D. Tagliente, “Enabling Custom Vehicle Diagnostics with a Common Application Platform”, In Proceedings of the Ground Vehicle Systems Engineering and Technology Symposium (GVSETS), NDIA, Novi, MI, Aug. 10-12, 2021
ABSTRACT As the Army leverages Prognostic and Predictive Maintenance (PPMx) models to migrate ground vehicle platforms toward health monitoring and prescriptive maintenance, the need is imminent for a pipeline to quickly and constantly move operational and maintenance data off the platform, through analytic models, and push the insights gained back out to the edge. This process will reduce data-to-decision time and operation and sustainment costs while increasing reliability for the platform and situational awareness for analysts, subject matter experts, maintainers, and operators. The US Army Ground Vehicle Systems Center (GVSC) is collaborating with The US Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) to develop a system of systems approach to stream operational and maintenance data to appropriate computing resources, collocating the data with DoD High-Performance Computing (HPC) processing capabilities where appropriate, then channeling the generated insights to maintainers
ABSTRACT Ground vehicles are complex systems with many interrelated subsystems - finding the sweet-spot among competing objectives such as performance, unit cost, O&S costs, development risk, and growth potential is a non-trivial task. Whole Systems Trade Analysis (WSTA) is a systems analysis and decision support methodology and tool that integrates otherwise separate subsystem models into a holistic system view mapping critical design choices to consequences relevant to stakeholders. As a highly integrated and collaborative effort WSTA generates a holistic systems and Multiple Objective Decision Analysis (MODA) model. The decision support model and tool captures and synthesizes outputs from individual analyses into trade-space visualizations designed to facilitate rapid and complete understanding of the trade-space to stakeholders and provide drill down capability to supporting rationale. The approach has opened up trade space exploration significantly evaluating up to 1020+ potential
ABSTRACT The Advanced Systems Engineering Capability (ASEC) developed by TARDEC Systems Engineering & Integration (SE&I) group is an integrated Systems Engineering (SE) knowledge creation and capture framework built on a decision centric method, high quality data visualizations, intuitive navigation and systems information management that enable continuous data traceability, real time collaboration and knowledge pattern leverage to support the entire system lifecycle. The ASEC framework has evolved significantly over the past year. New tools have been added for capturing lessons learned from warfighter experiences in theater and for analyzing and validating the needs of ground domains platforms/systems. These stakeholder needs analysis tools may be used to refine the ground domain capability model (functional decomposition) and to help identify opportunities for common solutions across platforms. On-going development of ASEC will migrate all tools to a single virtual desktop to promote
ABSTRACT FBS Inc. is working with the TARDEC Electrified Armor Lab to develop a nondestructive structural health monitoring technology for composite armor panels that utilizes an array of embedded ultrasonic sensors for guided wave tomographic imaging. This technology would allow for periodic or real-time monitoring of armor integrity while being minimally intrusive and adding negligible weight. The technology is currently being developed and tested in pseudo composite armor panels and efforts are focused on reducing sensor array density, improving sensor integration procedures, and maximizing system sensitivity to damage. In addition to experimental testing and development, FBS is developing a highly-automated finite element model generation and analysis program to be used in conjunction with Abaqus/Explicit commercial finite element software. This program is specifically dedicated to modeling guided wave propagation in pseudo composite armor panels between embedded ultrasonic sensors
ABSTRACT All CBM+ solutions must establish a business case considering cost of implementation and sustainment of value with a quantifiable return on investment. The business case must be traceable to specific failure modes, associated failure effects, criticality, and risk. Risk is not limited to safety and operational risks. Predictive systems by definition return both true and false predictions representing operational and financial risk from high false positive rates. There is also risk of losing operator confidence in predictive systems when there is a high false positive rate. All of these risks must be quantified and considered in the design and development of CBM+ systems. Model based approaches are effective in accelerating development, defining advanced functional characteristics, and efficiently testing dynamic effects of complex systems. CBM+ maintenance strategies rely on performance of complex systems
ABSTRACT Tools have been developed to compare the dynamic deformation of vehicle hulls as they undergo blast-testing with numerical simulations. These tools allow quantitative comparisons and measurements over a wide area of the hull surface, rather than point comparisons as have been performed in the past. The experimental measurements are performed with the Dynamic Deformation Instrumentation System (DDIS) that was developed for TARDEC. Numerical simulations of the test article attached to Southwest Research Institute’s Landmine Test Fixture were performed with LS-DYNA using an empirical blast-loads model. The specific example highlighted in this paper is the deformation by blast testing of a hull component
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