Method and apparatus for vehicle component health prognosis by integrating aging model, usage information and health signatures

1. A method for determining the health of a component, the method comprising:

retrieving measured health signatures from the component;

retrieving component usage variables;

estimating component health signatures using an aging model and the component usage variables;

determining an aging derivative using the aging model;

calculating an aging error based on the estimated component health signatures, the aging derivative and the measured health signatures; and

recalculating the estimated component health signatures and the aging derivative until the aging error is below a predetermined threshold.

2. The method of claim 1 , further including calculating a corrected age of the component based on an estimated age and the aging error.

3. The method of claim 1 , further including determining if the aging error is below a predetermined threshold.

4. The method of claim 3 , further including calculating a remaining life of the component if the aging error is below the predetermined threshold.

5. The method of claim 1 , further including initializing the estimated component age to zero.

6. The method of claim 1 , further including calculating an estimated age of the component based on the aging error.

7. A system for determining the health of a component, the system comprising:

a computing device with a memory that includes:

an aging model configured to calculate estimated component health signatures based on a plurality of component usage variables;

a comparison module configured to calculate an aging error based on the estimated component health signatures and measured component health signatures; and

a calculation block configured to calculate an estimated age of the component based on the aging error, and to determine the remaining life of the component based on a maximum life expectancy and the estimated age of the component.

8. The system of claim 7 , further including an aging correction module configured to calculate a corrected age of the component based on an estimated age and the aging error.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the aging model and the comparison module are configured to recalculate, respectively, the estimated component health signatures and the aging derivative until the aging error is below a predetermined threshold.

10. A system that includes a non-transitory computer-readable medium tangibly embodying computer-executable instructions for:

initializing an age estimation;

retrieving measured health signatures from the component;

retrieving component usage variables;

estimating component health signatures using the age estimation and the component usage variables;

determining an aging derivative using the partial derivative of the estimated health signature with respect to the age estimation; and

calculating an aging error based on the estimated component health signatures, the aging derivative and the measured health signatures.

11. The system of claim 10 , further including calculating a corrected age of the component based on the age estimation and the aging error.

12. The system of claim 10 , further including determining if the aging error is below a predetermined threshold.

13. The system of claim 12 , further including calculating a remaining life of the component if the aging error is below the predetermined threshold.

14. The system of claim 10 , further including recalculating the estimated component health signatures and the aging derivative until the aging error is below a predetermined threshold.

15. The system of claim 10 , further including initializing the age estimation to zero.

16. The system of claim 10 , further including revising the age estimation based on the aging error.

17. The system of claim 10 , where estimating component health signatures using the age estimation and the component usage variables uses an aging model.

18. The system of claim 17 , where determining an aging derivative using the partial derivative of the estimated health signature with respect to the age estimation uses the ageing model.

19. The system of claim 10 , where determining an aging derivative using the partial derivative of the estimated health signature with respect to the age estimation uses an ageing model.