Submarine Fault Detection and Identification by Means of an Artificial Immune System (AIS)

An artificial immune system (AIS) was used to detect and identify a rudder jam occurring on a submarine. Even though the rudder jam angle of five degrees was small and occurred during a planned movement of the rudder to affect a heading change, the jam was detected 97 seconds after it happened. The AIS design allowed the fault to be identified according to whether the fault affected the ship's vertical plane motion, horizontal plane motion, or transverse plane motion. The fault detection and identification was accomplished without any direct knowledge of the rudder motion or rudder angle.