Blockchain-based Health and Usage Monitoring Systems (HUMS) For Aerospace Structures
Ravi Mukkamala, Eranga Bandara, Sachin S. Shetty · 2022 IEEE/AIAA 41st Digital Avionics Systems Conference (DASC) · 2022
As the complexity of avionics systems continues to grow, so does the criticality of monitoring and maintaining these systems. While it is important to collect data regarding the health and usage of the structures and the underlying components, it is equally important to store the data in a manner that is easily accessible, tamper-resistant, and secure. In this paper, we propose a blockchain-based system to store and manage the data generated by avionic health and usage monitoring systems (HUMS). Traditional file systems are prone to attacks, intentional/unintentional destruction or tampering of data, and failures. By replacing the traditional data storage systems with blockchains, along with the use of cryptographic techniques, additional properties such as assurances of source/time of data generation, improved fault-tolerance/availability, and tamper-evidence can be offered. By employing smart contract feature of blockchains, functionalities such as sending alerts to administrators in case of problems can be implemented in a secure, safe, and timely manner. We propose blockchain-based HUMS architectures for both real-time and non-real-time application support. A high-level description of the architectures is provided with some details on data organization and additional functionalities.