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Qualtech Systems, Inc. Awarded "NASA Space Act Award" for Significant Scientific and Technical Contributions to NASA

Wethersfield, CT. July 2002... Qualtech Systems, Inc. (QSI) has been awarded a NASA Space Act Award for significant scientific and technical contributions to NASA’s aeronautical, commercialization, and space goals. This contribution is a software toolset for designing and developing diagnostic applications such as those required in Integrated Vehicle Health Management (IVHM) systems. Three software tools that support systems engineering, systems design and testability, automated diagnostics and troubleshooting, and system autonomy have been developed during a 7 year collaboration between researchers at NASA Ames Research Center and Qualtech Systems, Inc. The tools are: 1) TEAMS™ (Testability Engineering And Maintenance System), a tool used in static design/analysis phases of complex systems, 2) TEAMS-RT™, a real-time diagnostic engine that provides diagnostic functionality for integrated vehicle health systems on-board a flight vehicle or embedded into a run-time architecture, and 3) RDS™ (Remote Diagnosis Server), an application that can support multiple simultaneous diagnostic sessions from a variety of remote systems. Programs that will benefit from this technology include commercial and military aviation, advanced transportation systems, Future Shuttle, 2nd Generation Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV), International Space Station, and robotic/autonomous explorers.

The initial development of this comprehensive diagnostics capability began in 1994. The focus of the initial contract was the development of TEAMS™, a tool that supports the life cycle needs of large, complex engineering systems in the design (analysis and optimization) phase through to the maintenance phase of the system. TEAMS™ allows the system designer to assess performance, ease of maintenance and diagnostic performance simultaneously during the design phase. A novel modeling approach, multi-signal flow graphs, provides a simple, efficient modeling representation which can capture a system’s structural and functional relationships – information essential to performing diagnostics in the later phases of system development and deployment. The initial version of TEAMS-RT™, the real-time diagnostic tool was developed under Phase 2 of this contract in support of Ames’ Integrated Vehicle Health Management technology development program for the X-33 vehicle program. TEAMS-RT™ was enhanced under two NASA follow-on contracts. Additional capabilities were developed to implement: a) real-time monitoring and diagnosis in the presence of imperfect tests and temporary failures, b) ranking and selection of available tests to enable quick and accurate fault isolation, c) real-time, on-board diagnosis using existing computing resources, and d) real-time, on-board monitoring and diagnosis under actual flight conditions.

The capability of monitoring software components of highly automated systems was developed under two more NASA R&D contracts. Complex functionality is being implemented in software to reduce costs and improve reliability in aerospace systems, automobiles, and in many safety critical systems. Consequently, any health monitoring solution must consider failures in both hardware and software aspects. A system for automating the monitoring, diagnosis, and troubleshooting of the Unitary Wind Tunnel control systems was developed using TEAMS-RT™. This is a novel solution for the monitoring and diagnosis of integrated hardware and software systems. A further enhancement to TEAMS-RT™, the Remote Diagnosis Server, was developed in Phase 2 of this contract. The Remote Diagnosis Server is a distributed diagnosis solution with ultra-compact memory requirements that enables tele-diagnosis of legacy systems that were not originally designed for real-time, on-board diagnosis as well as diagnosis for highly connected, network enabled systems. A new NASA R&D contract, currently in progress, is developing failure detection, prognostics, fault isolation, and reconfiguration modules that can operate remotely over a low bandwidth wireless link. The following figure shows the comprehensive TEAMS TEAMS™ tool set for Integrated Diagnostics and IVHM.

More organizations such as NASA, Navy, USAF, Army, and OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) are embracing a systems-oriented approach to the design process. Tools that can reduce unnecessary tests, provide cost effective testing procedures, and which are built to work seamlessly in an integrated design environment can yield substantial cost savings over the system's lifetime. The markets for such design tools include large prime contractors and government organizations who must integrate numerous subsystems and study testability at the system level; and the various 2nd and 3rd tier subcontractors and suppliers who must provide testability models along with their design and/or hardware. In the post-design phase, on-board diagnostics and portable intelligent maintenance aids (PIMAs) offer a transition and commercialization avenue that holds significant potential. In addition, the real-time system health monitoring can be embedded in flight computers for in-flight failure detection, isolation and reconfiguration. The TEAMS™ tools can be used as training aids for field maintenance engineers and/or diagnosticians. Most significantly, Qualtech’s "Remote Diagnostic Server (RDS)" or TEAMS -RDS™ provides these capabilities from a central server computer to thin clients (PC with a web browser) over the Internet, anywhere in the world. The e-commerce potential of this solution has very large (and rapidly expanding) commercial potential. The Qualtech Integrated Toolset, developed largely on NASA R&D contracts, is unique in that it provides a complete (comprehensive) solution for cradle-to-grave supportability of complex systems whether they are new development or legacy platforms.