Expert System for the Tornado Ground-Based Check-Out System,

The maintenance effort in terms of time and cost of modern avionic systems is driven by the increasing complexity. To achieve the required operational availability of aircraft, the maintenance turn-around-times and logistic support needs to be optimized. Expert Systems seem to be a promising approach to increase the effectiveness of on-board and ground-based test and diagnosis systems. A knowledge based approach, using inference techniques, that can also handle uncertain and incomplete information, was used to support detection and isolation of problems in avionic equipments. A technology demonstrator, supporting the TORNADO check-out system, has been developed and tested. The expert system, called TORRES TORNADO Radar Readiness Expert System, supports debriefing staff with various levels of experience. The scope of the error detection encompasses the TORNADO Terrain Following and Ground Mapping Radarsystem, down to module level. The main task of TORRES is the identification and isolation of errors that occurred during the previous flight. The expert system is also able to exclude errors, that were generated by other systems capable of changing the state of the radar system and isolate the cause. Other influences like EMC, exceeding avionic systems acceleration limits and weather effects are taken under consideration and reported.