Prognostics

Book excerpt: Prognostics is the science of making predictions of engineering systems. It is part of a suite of techniques that determine whether a system is behaving within nominal operational performance and - if it does not - that determine what is wrong and how long it will take until the system no longer fulfills certain functional requirements. This book presents the latest developments and research findings on the topic of prognostics by the Prognostics Center of Excellence at NASA Ames Research Center. The book is intended to provide a practitioner with an understanding of the foundational concepts as well as practical tools to perform prognostics and health management on different types of engineering systems and in particular to predict remaining useful life.