Failure detection and control-system reconfiguration: Past, present, and future

The history of failure detection and redundancy management in aircraft applications is reviewed. To date, techniques related to that subject have been based mainly on hardware duplication of like components with failure monitoring and switchover or averaging for redundancy management. Specific examples of these techniques are discussed as they have been applied to the NASA F-8 Digital Fly-by-Wire aircraft and are to be applied to the space shuttle vehicle in the near future.