A New Availability Assessment Method for Complex Control Systems With Multi-Characteristics

Abstract

This paper proposes a new availability assessment method for complex control systems with multi-characteristics based on the goal-oriented (GO) method to evaluate the lower confidence limit of its system availability. First, the GO method for complex control systems with multi-characteristics is illustrated in terms of expounding GO operators and proposing a new exact algorithm with shared signals. Then, the new availability assessment method is expounded in detail, and its process is formulated. Finally, the new method is used to evaluate the lower confidence limit of the system stability of the electrohydraulic control system of a power-shift steering transmission as an example. To verify its advantages and rationality, the availability assessment results and evaluation efficiency are compared with those obtained by the regular Monte Carlo method and the regular exact GO algorithm with shared signals. Furthermore, the coverage rate of the lower confidence limit of the system availability obtained by the new method is compared with the nominal significance level. Overall, this availability assessment method not only improves the theory of the GO method and widens its application but also provides a new approach for the availability assessment of complex control systems that reduces costs and improves the estimation efficiency and accuracy.

Keywords

• Control systems
• reliability engineering
• reliability theory
• system modeling