An Embedded Test & Health Monitoring Strategy for Detecting and Locating Faults in Aerospace Bus Systems

A new test & measurement strategy for on-line health monitoring of Mil-Std-1553 data bus is proposed. The method monitors the signal quality at multiple points on the data bus and uses the voltage measurements to detect and locate defects. The on-line monitoring method supports defect detection and location on the main backbone of the bus and in transformer coupled branches. The method does not require excessive data processing but some communication between measurement points is required. The advantage of this method is that it supports detection of intermittent defects which can not be located using off-line measurement. It also provides the ability to detect defects on whole data bus harness. The method is complemented with a supporting test involving an externally generated test signal to find certain defects which require multiple measurements. The measurement method is designed to work independently on the data bus using embedded electronics without disrupting the normal operation.