national aerospace technology strategy
Thursday 28 August 2008

NATS - National Aerospace Technology Strategy > ATVPs and AINs > Health Management and Prognostics AIN

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Health Management and Prognostics AIN

The aerospace industry is recognised as one of the leading sectors in technology development, acting as a stimulus for growth and generating a substantial balance of trade surplus. This makes aerospace the UK 's most competitive manufacturing sector. Investment in R&T and R&D gives civilian aerospace sustainability and military aviation battle winning advantage.

As part of the National Aerospace Technology Strategy (NATS), the Aerospace Innovation Growth Team (AeIGT) initiative is to realise the vision that "by 2022 the UK will offer a global aerospace industry in the worlds most innovative and productive location, leading to a sustainable growth for all its stakeholders". Instrumental to this is the formation of six Aerospace Technology Validation Programmes (ATVPs) and thirteen Aerospace Innovation Networks (AINs), established to achieve this objective.

The Health Management and Prognostics AIN (HMaP)'s mission statement is: 'The Innovation Network will enable the UK Aerospace Industry to realise its potential in the field of health management and prognostics via formalised groupings of expertise, a co-ordinated research programme for technology development, strategic investments, and networked technology transfer thereby delivering benefits to Industry, Environment and the Consumer'.



Research Themes

The primary requirement of the AIN is to develop a generic, open system, hardware platform for data acquisition, signal processing and computation of data fusion algorithms. The programme and associated capability development is separated into seven focal items that provide the source problem requiring a health monitoring solution:

 

  • Aircraft Systems
  • Avionics
  • Environmental degradation of structures
  • Electrical Wiring interconnect systems
  • Engines/Power Systems
  • Structures
  • Generic capabilities

Benefits

Short term benefits include: the reduced cost of ownership through:

  • Reduction in fuel burn by engine efficiency, low drag and low weight;
  • Reduction in maintenance costs of aircraft structure and systems;
  • Reduction in environmental impact of manufacture and operations (processes, noise, emissions).
  • Improved safety record for aircraft operation (full implementation of EASA)

The programme will engage industry and academic establishments and seek funding from DTI, RDAs, MoD and EPSRC working closely with the other AINs and ATVPs to fully exploit emerging technologies and ensure they are pulled through from the science base and embedded in the supply chain. This is to be achieved by providing a coordinated approach to technology and capability development for UK aerospace, in particular with respect to funding authorities. It will develop and deliver a coordinated programme linking multi-disciplinary capabilities with multi-sector applications. The existence of such an initiative will demonstrate to multinational corporations a strong capability in this technology and the credibility and stability of the as a continuing base for their research activities.

 

The programme will be focussed on developing and delivering key technologies to civil and military aircraft including UAVs. industry has the capability to harness and deliver on this investment by working together with the Government and the regional bodies to continue to develop an increasingly robust aerospace industry. Industrial partners can hope to develop their forward looking strategy and capability, with accompanying strengthening of local economies through this. In addition multiple cross-sectoral benefits can be achieved through exploitation of technology/ capability into other areas. The nominated industry lead company for this programme is QinetiQ.

Status

The programme is currently in the early stages of implementation with industry working closely with SMEs and academic establishments to deliver an ambitious programme of research for Health Management and Prognostics. Early projects include support for the Integrated Wing, Autonomous Vehicles and More Electric Aircraft technology validation programmes.