Automated diagnostics for aerospace power management systems

Due to safety and mission criticality, aerospace power management systems require built in fault tolerance. Existing systems focus on hardware redundancy and lack the characteristics needed to provide rapid fault diagnostics and reconfiguration of power flow to critical users. Solid state power control (SSPC) electronics can provide faster switching times than electromechanical devices and when this technology is coupled with advanced software for diagnostics, a fault tolerant system design can be implemented. This paper describes a new project to integrate advanced SSPC electronics with newly available, knowledge-based diagnostic software in order to demonstrate the ability to detect, isolate and implement corrective action within a short period of time consistent with requirements for uninterrupted power. A fast embedded microprocessor will be used to run the diagnostic software and control power electronics. This project seeks to demonstrate the technology needed to enable a power management and distribution system to automatically compensate for faults in real time.