Improving Transportation Safety with Prognostics

Recent commercial aircraft and mass transit tragedies have compelled us to examine all available methods of improving the reliability of critical electronic systems employed in these systems. The reported problems have included apparent electrical faults in aircraft, sensor problems, and CPU problems. As service lives of critical transit systems are lengthening, there is growing importance in gauging the remaining useful life (RUL) of key systems within our aircraft or metro trains.

Fortunately, in recent years, DoD and NASA have funded the development of advanced diagnostic and prognostic (i.e., predictive diagnostics) solutions that have high Technology Readiness Levels (TRL). When incorporated into critical nodes in transportation systems, they offer the possibility of detecting impending electronic failures before they occur. This capability supports determination of remaining useful life (RUL) and, in turn, can help reduce the occurrence of these tragic events.

What about MTBF?

Although advanced designs with high calculated mean-time-between-failures (MTBF) figures may console people, a more effective and practical method is the detection of degradation on the specific systems themselves. For example, it is not sufficient to know, on a statistical basis, that 20 modules out of 100,000 will fail; we want to know which 20 will fail on which system using measured physical evidence so that corrective mitigation measures can be focused on the specific systems having the identified degradation problem.

At the end of this turbulent economic ride we are on, Ridgetop Group's position will have improved more than ever allowing us to continue offering support and growth for our core competencies. This improved stance will also allow us to bolster support to our customers beyond our competitors' efforts. Finally, Ridgetop will continue to develop groundbreaking, innovative solutions for our customers’ business and technological challenges.

Ridgetop has been leading the development of advanced electronic prognostics methods since our founding in 2000. Our proven solutions will detect degradation or faults occurring at five levels in electronic systems; die-, package-, board-, module- and system-level. Ridgetop can provide enabling technology to support online monitoring solutions, allowing continuous examination of electronic-based system health, non-intrusively. This provides customers with the assurance that all possible technologies are being applied to ensure transit system safety.

In addition to providing support or service personnel with the confidence that a particular system has the capability of performing its functions without fault, these prognostic solutions also offer solid savings in supporting thorough condition-based maintenance (CBM) methods. These methods provide savings through the elimination or reduction of unfocused maintenance, and more appropriately guide the maintenance personnel to the identified problem area.

Research and development continues in the field of electronic prognostics, and builds upon earlier successes in power system prognostics, CPU prognostics, intermittency detection, and many other areas. We are thankful to our customers for their support and endorsement of our corporate mission of providing tools supporting the development of safer transportation systems.

Doug Goodman
Founder and CEO