Integrated system health management in unmanned and autonomous systems

Integrated System Health Management (ISHM) is an enabling technology for unmanned and autonomous systems, permitting increased autonomy, allowing operators to control or manage the operation of multiple platforms simultaneously, and reducing the cost of operating and maintaining the platforms. Furthermore, as unmanned systems become standard equipment, the ability to monitor and manage system health is not just an enabling technology, but is required in order to meet platform availability and supportability goals. Unmanned and autonomous systems can leverage developments in ISHM for manned systems, but also have unique requirements that affect the selection of hardware, the strategy for collecting and processing data, and the integration of health-related information with platform command and control systems. This paper compares ISHM requirements, monitoring techniques, and system implementation and integration issues in manned and unmanned platforms.