Vehicle health monitoring for AVCS malfunction management

Vehicle health monitoring as related to malfunction management is discussed. The needs and the functions for vehicle inspection, performance monitoring and failure detection/diagnosis are addressed. The safety critical functions of an Advanced Vehicle Control System (AVCS) and the major functions using failure mode effects and critically analysis are identified. The requirements for a monitoring system regarding detection time, fail-safe characteristics and self diagnosis capability for monitoring devices are examined. Potential monitoring techniques are investigated. It is concluded that health monitoring is a vitally important function for a safety-critical system of components.