Seawolf ship control-experience with performance monitoring and fault localization

摘要

This paper relates lessons learned from the development and testing of the Performance Monitoring (PM) and Fault Localization (FL) functions of the Seawolf ship control system. THis functionality, in conjunction with redundant components, provides automatic detection, recovery, and reporting of failures of ship control electronics, sensors, actuation components, valves, and ship control machinery. It improves the ability of the ship to perform its mission and reduces overall life-cycle operating costs. The importance of PM/FL, will be even greater on future submarines, as systems are more fully automated to allow for a reduction in size of the crew. PM/FL functionality does not come without a price; these complex decision-making algorithms are difficult to specify, develop, and test. Seawolf has advanced the state-of-the-art in this area but has by no means tapped its full potential. The paper will discuss achieving the correct balance between PM/FL functionality and development cost, the difficulties involved in the exhaustive verification of PM/FL, nad possible future PM/FL technical trends.