Enhanced smart sensor for integrated system health management

Using the IEEE 1451 Smart Sensor Standard helps reconcile issues of proliferation and interoperability of systems and sensors. Integrated System Health Management (ISHM) uses IEEE 1451 to provide homogeneity and expandability to increasingly complex sensor networks. Sensor conformance allows a large part of system commissioning, data processing, and network upgrades to be handled automatically. While IEEE 1451 supports this end, the sensors under development for ISHM at NASA's Stennis Space Center expand beyond the conventional Smart Sensor envelope to offer onboard health assessment capabilities that compliment the prognostic and diagnostic goals of ISHM. This total integration helps improve the real-time processing capabilities of ISHM, while supporting offline development of new algorithms and supporting feature extraction routines.