Self-protection and Anomaly Detection & Mitigation for Aircraft Systems

Professor Ali Zolghadri,
Bordeaux University, CNRS | IMS Lab
Bordeaux, France,

Abstract: What is the Achilles’ heel of academic Fault Detection and Isolation (FDI) methods when it comes to application to real aircraft systems? The talk starts with some major and decisive issues that stand in the way of their transition from lab developments and simulations to real life applications in aeronautics. Often underestimated by academics, these issues determine the survivability of a new design for final V&V (Verification & Validation) activities. The talk recalls some practical items that should be considered at the design stage to help reach high Technological Readiness Level (TRL) scales for a given FDI algorithm. The talk will also take a look in the future and the way forward to anticipate future needs. Thanks to new innovative and disruptive technologies, in the recent digital transformation context, the aircraft industry is under complete transformation. There is no doubt that future systems will operate with greater autonomy and intelligence. The talk argues that we have reached a turning point in FDI design: we are moving from the established FDI theory investigated to date, to trustworthy, cross-domain, evolvable and distributed FDI within a connected and distributed cyber-physical flight environment.

Brief Biography of the Speaker: Ali Zolghadri received his PhD from the University of Bordeaux, France – and has been a Full Professor of Control Systems Engineering there since 2003. He is currently what is called an Exceptional Class University Professor in French academia. His research interests are centered around model-based design methods for reconfigurable control and fault management of dynamical systems. This includes observation and estimation issues, fault diagnosis and data fusion, and fault tolerant control. More recently, he investigates safety and security issues of cyber physical systems. He is a member of International TC “SafeProcess” and “Aerospace” of IFAC, an IEEE senior member and member of IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems and IEEE Circuits and Systems societies. He is TC member of EuroGNC (Concil of European Aerospace societies). He has served as IPC member for various international conferences, and has delivered a number of keynote/plenary talks and other invited talks at venues worldwide. He is an Associate Editor of the “Journal of the Franklin Institute” (USA) and Editorial Board member of “Aerospace Science and Engineering”, MDPI (Switzerland). He had also served as member of steering comity of France’s aerospace valley for several years. He is author / co-author of more than 220 publications in international journals and refereed conferences (scopus h-idex = 31), and co-holder of 15 patents in aerospace. In 2021, he has been named in the world's top 2% scientists. He is the recipient of CNRS Medal of Innovation 2016 which rewards, all disciplines taken together, “outstanding scientific research with innovative applications in the technological and societal fields”.