Sensor-Based Fault Diagnosis in a Flight Expert System

A prototype of a knowledge-based flight expert system (FLES) has been developed to assist airplane pilots in monitoring, analyzing, and diagnosing faults and to provide support in reducing the pilot's own mistakes. A sensor simulation model has been developed to provide FLES with the airplane status information during the diagnostic process. The simulator is based partly on the Advanced Concept System (ACS), a future-generation airplane, and partly on the Boeing 737, an existing airplane. The architecture of FLES contains several subsystems. One of the major subsystems performs fault diagnosis in the electrical system of the ACS. This paper describes the mechanism and functionality of the automatic diagnosis performed in this expert system.