High-level recognition from NASA regarding our work in Vehicle Level Reasoning that appeared in the recent FY15 NASA Management and Performance Report (page 101):
“NASA and its partners established the technical feasibility of a vehicle-level prognostic reasoning system. This system would offer an onboard capability to provide additional warning about potential aircraft system failures that could degrade safety. The information could allow pilots or maintenance personnel to take necessary steps to ensure continued safe operation. The prognostic reasoning system combines onboard system measurements with a data mining capability to detect out-of-the-ordinary, or anomalous, conditions. Using this approach, the reasoning system compares onboard conditions with historical data linked to actual failures. Pilots and maintenance personnel would be notified when the system detects an anomaly. Designers used subject-matter experts during the development of this system to improve the system’s ability to detect potential problems correctly, while limiting the number of false detections. During the multi-year activity that completed in 2013, NASA and its partners used a prototype reasoning system to correctly predict three safety incidents from a set of regional airline flight data. The system also correctly detected and provided advanced warning of four faults that were injected into an aircraft navigation system. To improve opportunities for technology transfer, NASA and its partners tested the reasoning system using existing aircraft hardware, software, and communication protocols.”