Operational availability, reliability, and performance of Army weapons systems platforms are key factors in achieving mission success. Aircraft, RADAR, intermediate Missile, and combat vehicles depend on the health of their systems to perform reliably over extended periods of time. Maintenance of equipment and components, including interconnect cables and connectors, is an important aspect of reliability, assuring that weapons systems will operate properly when called upon. Army maintainers and depot artisans have a requirement for an intelligent toolset to quickly detect, locate, characterize/classify, and predict wire and connector faults. AVNIK Defense Solutions, Inc. (AVNIK) proposes an intelligent Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (iFMCW) hand-held toolset for detection and diagnosis of faults in interconnect cables. We will work with our expert subcontractor research institution (RI) Auburn University and consultant subject matter experts (SMEs) at The University of Alabama at Huntsville (UAH) and Instrumental Sciences, Inc. (ISI). We will research cable properties and iFMCW waveform options, apply data analytics methods to field data to characterize cable fault types, and demonstrate key elements of the toolset in the laboratory. Primary objectives of the Phase I research are to (1) evaluate efficacy of candidate iFMCW waveform parameters to determine locations and types of faults in cables, (2) determine the feasibility of applying data analytics and artificial intelligence techniques to field data sets to identify and quantify cable and connector fault characteristics, and (3) develop statistical methods to operate on toolset outputs to maximize fault detection/prediction accuracy.
