Patent ID: 7308614

Claim:
An apparatus for control sequencing and prognostic health monitoring of an electrical power system of a vehicle, the electrical power system including power rectification/inversion equipment for AC-DC, DC-AC, and/or AC-DC-AC power conversion and power distribution equipment for distributing converted power to one or more loads of the vehicle, said apparatus comprising: a data measuring unit for obtaining measurement values of at least one electrical component of the electrical power system; a prognostic health monitoring and diagnostic unit for identifying out-of-range conditions for said electrical component as a function of said measured values, said prognostic health monitoring and diagnostic unit further identifying overload conditions for said electrical component based on past and present measurement values and identifying trend violations as a function of said measurement values to assess future operation of said electrical component; and a decision making unit for controlling transition between a plurality of operating modes based on conditions identified by said prognostic health monitoring and diagnostic unit, said decision making unit controlling the transition between said plurality of operating modes to selectively continue operation of said electronics power system of said vehicle in a fail-safe fashion despite conditions identified by said prognostic health monitoring and diagnostic unit and to selectively initiate autonomous restart of said power rectification/inversion equipment following a fault condition identified by said prognostic health monitoring and diagnostic unit.