Scheduled maintenance

What is predictive health monitoring?

Predictive health monitoring (PHM) describes the continuous monitoring and analysis of system states in order to detect and prevent critical situations at an early stage. Sensor data is collected and analyzed in real time and compared with historical patterns to identify anomalies and predict faults before they occur.

Technological basis: AI and time series analysis

The methodological core of predictive health monitoring is based on advanced AI technologies such as recurrent neural networks and adversarial autoencoders. These networks are trained against each other to develop particularly robust feature representations. This enables them to accurately capture the normal behavior of military vehicles or components after only short training phases and reliably detect deviations.

Deviations from this – caused by wear and tear or software changes, for example – are detected and evaluated as anomalies. This allows valve coking or pump damage, for example, to be identified at an early stage.

Applications in defense

Defense benefits from predictive maintenance in several ways:

• Fleet monitoring: By analyzing control unit data, fault patterns in vehicle fleets can be detected and localized – for example, during test campaigns or in the field.
• CAN communication analysis: This monitors how the various control units in the vehicle communicate with each other. This allows problems to be detected at an early stage when parts are replaced or unusual influences occur.
• Software validation: Changes in software or calibration can be checked for their effects using anomaly detection – a crucial step in ensuring functionality after updates.
• Cybersecurity: Predictive monitoring can also be used to detect cyberattacks or atypical user behavior.
• Test bench and endurance monitoring: Early detection of defects during long-term tests increases quality and reduces downtime.

Advantages for defense

• Increased operational readiness through early maintenance
• Cost reduction through targeted maintenance instead of reactive repairs
• Security gains by avoiding critical system failures
• Increased efficiency in the development and testing of new military systems