Reliability modeling for balanced systems considering mission abort policies

Abstract

This paper studies a mission abort policy to avoid the high probability of system failure for a balanced system performing a specific mission continuously over a period of time. The system comprises two subsystems with multiple states, and a balance criterion proposed in this paper is based on the state distance between the two subsystems. A mission abort policy is implemented when the system enters into unbalanced subsets reaching a limited number of times. The system is considered to have failed if one of the subsystems enters into an absorbing state. To assess the system's performance, two probability indices, namely mission success probability and system survivability, are derived by using the theory of aggregated stochastic processes. To validate the findings presented in this paper, a case study involving an unmanned aerial vehicle performing a mission is conducted. The results of this case study effectively demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed mission abort policy and the derived probability indices.