A discussion of the prognostics and health management aspects of embedded condition monitoring systems

Abstract

This paper presents a review of embedded condition monitoring research carried out at Cardiff University. A variety of application areas are described, along with a discussion of the evolution of the hardware platforms used. The current operating philosophies of the Intelligent Process Monitoring and Management (IPMM) research group and the deployed hierarchical and distributed architectures are described. The paper sets out to discuss the on-going trend towards such monitoring systems needing to provide more than fault detection and diagnostic capabilities. System requirements such as tracking operational settings, performance and efficiency measures and providing limp-home facilities are seen to be consistent with prognostics and health management ideals. The paper concludes with a discussion of new and future developments and applications.