Telemetry is the in situ collection of measurements or other data at remote points and their automatic transmission to receiving equipment (telecommunication) for monitoring. The word is derived from the Greek roots tele, 'remote', and metron, 'measure'. Systems that need external instructions and data to operate require the counterpart of telemetry: telecommand.
The technical meaning of maintenance involves functional checks, servicing, repairing or replacing of necessary devices, equipment, machinery, building infrastructure, and supporting utilities in industrial, business, and residential installations. Over time, this has come to include multiple wordings that describe various cost-effective practices to keep equipment operational; these activities occur either before or after a failure.
A safety-critical system or life-critical system is a system whose failure or malfunction may result in one of the following outcomes:
Telematics is an interdisciplinary field encompassing telecommunications, vehicular technologies, electrical engineering, and computer science. Telematics can involve any of the following:
Prognostics is an engineering discipline focused on predicting the time at which a system or a component will no longer perform its intended function. This lack of performance is most often a failure beyond which the system can no longer be used to meet desired performance. The predicted time then becomes the remaining useful life (RUL), which is an important concept in decision making for contingency mitigation. Prognostics predicts the future performance of a component by assessing the extent of deviation or degradation of a system from its expected normal operating conditions. The science of prognostics is based on the analysis of failure modes, detection of early signs of wear and aging, and fault conditions. An effective prognostics solution is implemented when there is sound knowledge of the failure mechanisms that are likely to cause the degradations leading to eventual failures in the system. It is therefore necessary to have initial information on the possible failures in a product. Such knowledge is important to identify the system parameters that are to be monitored. Potential uses for prognostics is in condition-based maintenance. The discipline that links studies of failure mechanisms to system lifecycle management is often referred to as prognostics and health management (PHM), sometimes also system health management (SHM) or—in transportation applications—vehicle health management (VHM) or engine health management (EHM). Technical approaches to building models in prognostics can be categorized broadly into data-driven approaches, model-based approaches, and hybrid approaches.
Condition monitoring is the process of monitoring a parameter of condition in machinery, in order to identify a significant change which is indicative of a developing fault. It is a major component of predictive maintenance. The use of condition monitoring allows maintenance to be scheduled, or other actions to be taken to prevent consequential damages and avoid its consequences. Condition monitoring has a unique benefit in that conditions that would shorten normal lifespan can be addressed before they develop into a major failure. Condition monitoring techniques are normally used on rotating equipment, auxiliary systems and other machinery like belt-driven equipment,, while periodic inspection using non-destructive testing (NDT) techniques and fit for service (FFS) evaluation are used for static plant equipment such as steam boilers, piping and heat exchangers.
Fleet management is the management of:
Predictive maintenance techniques are designed to help determine the condition of in-service equipment in order to estimate when maintenance should be performed. This approach promises cost savings over routine or time-based preventive maintenance, because tasks are performed only when warranted. Thus, it is regarded as condition-based maintenance carried out as suggested by estimations of the degradation state of an item.
Machine to machine (M2M) is direct communication between devices using any communications channel, including wired and wireless. Machine to machine communication can include industrial instrumentation, enabling a sensor or meter to communicate the information it records to application software that can use it. Such communication was originally accomplished by having a remote network of machines relay information back to a central hub for analysis, which would then be rerouted into a system like a personal computer.
Flight controllers are personnel who aid space flight by working in such Mission Control Centers as NASA's Mission Control Center or ESA's European Space Operations Centre. Flight controllers work at computer consoles and use telemetry to monitor various technical aspects of a space mission in real-time. Each controller is an expert in a specific area and constantly communicates with additional experts in the "back room". The flight director, who leads the flight controllers, monitors the activities of a team of flight controllers, and has overall responsibility for success and safety.
Medical equipment management is a term for the professionals who manage operations, analyze and improve utilization and safety, and support servicing healthcare technology. These healthcare technology managers are, much like other healthcare professionals referred to by various specialty or organizational hierarchy names.
Brüel & Kjær is a Danish multinational engineering and electronics company headquartered in Nærum, near Copenhagen. It was the largest producer in the world of equipment for acoustic and vibrational measurements. Brüel & Kjær is a subsidiary of Spectris.
A vehicle tracking system combines the use of automatic vehicle location in individual vehicles with software that collects these fleet data for a comprehensive picture of vehicle locations. Modern vehicle tracking systems commonly use GPS or GLONASS technology for locating the vehicle, but other types of automatic vehicle location technology can also be used. Vehicle information can be viewed on electronic maps via the Internet or specialized software. Urban public transit authorities are an increasingly common user of vehicle tracking systems, particularly in large cities.
Spaceworthiness, or aerospaceworthiness, is a property, or ability of a spacecraft to perform to its design objectives and navigate successfully through both the space environment and the atmosphere as a part of a journey to or from space. The concept may less commonly be extended to other devices, such as spacesuits, which are designed to spend some amount of time exposed to space.
Health and usage monitoring systems (HUMS) is a generic term given to activities that utilize data collection and analysis techniques to help ensure availability, reliability and safety of vehicles. Activities similar to, or sometimes used interchangeably with, HUMS include condition-based maintenance (CBM) and operational data recording (ODR). This term HUMS is often used in reference to airborne craft and in particular rotor-craft – the term is cited as being introduced by the offshore oil industry after a commercial Chinook crashed in the North Sea, killing all but one passenger and one crew member in 1986.
Fault forwarding is a maintenance technique which is used to decrease the time taken to repair a vehicle. The problem is reported by the vehicle while it is in use and the maintenance team plan their repair before they have access to the vehicle. Therefore, when the vehicle is with them they will already have gathered the necessary parts and expertise. Thus minimizing the time taken to return the vehicle to service.
The growing demand for renewable energy has resulted in global adoption and rapid expansion of wind turbine technology. Wind Turbines are typically designed to reach a 20-year life, however, due to the complex loading and environment in which they operate wind turbines rarely operate to that age without significant repairs and extensive maintenance during that period. In order to improve the management of wind farms there is an increasing move towards preventative maintenance as opposed to scheduled and reactive maintenance to reduce downtime and lost production. This is achieved through the use of prognostic monitoring/management systems.
An intelligent maintenance system (IMS) is a system that uses collected data from machinery in order to predict and prevent potential failures in them. The occurrence of failures in machinery can be costly and even catastrophic. In order to avoid failures, there needs to be a system which analyzes the behavior of the machine and provides alarms and instructions for preventive maintenance. Analyzing the behavior of the machines has become possible by means of advanced sensors, data collection systems, data storage/transfer capabilities and data analysis tools. These are the same set of tools developed for prognostics. The aggregation of data collection, storage, transformation, analysis and decision making for smart maintenance is called an intelligent maintenance system (IMS).
A digital twin is a digital model of an intended or actual real-world physical product, system, or process that serves as the effectively indistinguishable digital counterpart of it for practical purposes, such as simulation, integration, testing, monitoring, and maintenance. The digital twin is the underlying premise for Product Lifecycle Management and exists throughout the entire lifecycle of the physical entity it represents. Since information is detailed, the digital twin representation is determined by the value-based use cases it is created to implement. The digital twin can exist before the physical entity, as for example with virtual prototyping. The use of a digital twin in the creation phase allows the intended entity's entire lifecycle to be modeled and simulated. A digital twin of an existing entity may be used in real time and regularly synchronized with the corresponding physical system.
