How can usage monitoring improve resilience?

Abstract

Resilience and systems engineering are key issues for critical systems. The operational usage and states of such systems are quite different from reference ones, generating drift and generate risks. This article suggests functional and physical architectures that fit resilience. Four functions relate to resilience (avoidance, resistance, recovery, adaptation). We develop the avoidance one and define a usage monitoring system that implements it. The case study concerns a railway accident that occurred at Aldershot, Canada. We explain the origin of the gap leading to the accident. The usage monitoring system would allow human operators to understand the situation and avoid the accident.