Wuhan Ligong Daxue Xuebao (Jiaotong Kexue Yu Gongcheng Ban)/Journal of Wuhan University of Technology (Transportation Science and Engineering)

Undersea terrain and resource exploration missions using autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) require a great deal of time. Therefore, it is necessary to monitor the state of the AUV in real time during the mission. In this paper, we propose an online health-monitoring method for AUVs using fault-tree analysis. The entire system is divided into four subsystems. Fault trees of each subsystem are designed based on the information of performance and reliability. Using the given subsystem fault trees, the health status of the entire system is evaluated by considering the performance, reliability, fault status, and weight factors of the parts. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated through simulations with various scenarios.