Systems approach for health management design: A simple fuel system case study

This paper presents the first of two case studies conducted in 2009, to evaluate a concept for specifying and designing a Health Management System (HMS). This first case study made use of a representative Unmanned Aerial Vehicle fuel system. Conflicting information requirements relating to the health of the fuel system were defined for a given stakeholder (Fuel System Maintenance Engineer). Following a Failure Modes and Effects Analysis of the fuel system, the concept was applied under two scenarios (with and without additional sensors), to specify associated HMS designs. These two designs were then compared to consider how well each design addressed the conflicting requirements. In addition, attributes such as weight, cost and power were also associated to the underlying HMS sensors. The attribute values were aggregated to the requirements level and demonstrated a new approach to designing and evaluating alternative HMS designs. The case study demonstrated that although this was a simple evaluation, the underlying concept has shown considerable potential in supporting a holistic approach to designing HMSs and supports informed trade-off analysis and design decision making.