THE OBJECTIVE OF THE PROPOSAL IS TO DEVELOP DEMONSTRATE AND MATURE AUTOMATED ADVANCED BUILT-IN DIAGNOSTICTECHNOLOGIES USING AN ARRAY OF PIEZOELECTRIC SENSORS/ACTUATORS MOUNTED ON A TEST ARTICLE C-17 COMPOSITE AILERON STRUCTURES. THE DAMAGE DIAGNOSIS TECHNIQUES ENABLE US TO LOCATE AND QUANTIFY SIZE OF INTERNAL DAMAGE BY IMAGINGTHEM IN COMPOSITE STRUCTURES FOR AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE HEALTH MONITORING. THE THEORETICAL BASIS OF THE DAMAGEDIAGNOSIS IS TO INTEGRATE TWO RECENTLY DEVELOPED SIGNAL AND IMAGING PROCESSING ALGORITHMS DEVELOPED BY THE PI SGROUP FREQUENCY-WAVELENGTH (F-K) MIGRATION AND A DORT (FRENCH ACRONYM FOR DECOMPOSITION OF THETIME-REVERSAL OPERATOR METHOD WHICH HAS BEEN DEMONSTRATED IN THE LABORATORY FOR ISOTROPIC METALLICSTRUCTURES BASED ON THE CONCEPT OF TIME-REVERSAL (TR) OF THE ULTRASONIC LAMB WAVES.FOUR SALIENT ADVANTAGES OF THE PROPOSED AUTOMATED SIGNAL AND IMAGING PROCESSING TECHNOLOGIES OVERCONVENTIONAL ONES ARE:(1) THEY SOLELY PROCESS AND INTERPRET THE SENSOR SIGNALS THROUGH F-K MIGRATION AND DORT METHOD; THEREBYNEITHER A PRIORI KNOWLEDGE OF THE STRUCTURAL GEOMETRY NOR KNOWLEDGE OF THE MATERIAL PROPERTIES OR LAYUP OF THECOMPOSITE IS NEEDED. THUS DAMAGE DIAGNOSIS IMPLEMENTED THROUGH NUMERICAL SIMULATION SUCH AS FINITE ELEMENTMETHOD WHICH REQUIRES GEOMETRY AND MATERIAL PROPERTIES IS NOT NEEDED;(2) THEY ARE BASELINE-FREE METHODS I.E. THE INFORMATION OF UNDAMAGED STRUCTURE STORED FROM PRIOR TIME IS NOTNECESSARY;(3) THEY ARE SELF-ADAPTIVE AND REFOCUS THE SENSORS ENERGY BACK TO THE DAMAGED REGION REGARDLESS OF THECOMPLEXITY OF THE STRUCTURE I.E. THE MORE COMPLEX THE STRUCTURE (I.E. COMPOSITE STIFFENERS) AND THE SHARPER THEFOCUS AND REGARDLESS OF THE ANISOTROPIC BEHAVIOR OF THE COMPOSITE STRUCTURE;(4) SINCE THE PROPOSED METHODS ALLOW IMAGING THE SIZE OF THE DAMAGE BASED ON A MATHEMATICAL ANALYSIS OF THEDORT THE SIGNAL INTERPRETATION ALGORITHMS CAN BE READILY IMPLEMENTED INTO A FEW OF ELECTRONICS HARDWARE TOESTABLISH A ROBUST PORTABLE SHM SYSTEM.A PROBABILITY FRAMEWORK FOR DAMAGE SIZING DISTRIBUTION AND DAMAGE PROGNOSIS WILL THEN BE DEVELOPED FORPREDICTING THE REMAINING USEFUL LIFE (RUL) OF COMPOSITE STRUCTURES USING DELAMINATION GROWTH LAW. THEPROPOSED TECHNOLOGIES WOULD DETERMINE NOT ONLY THE REAL-TIME VEHICLE COMPONENT HEALTH AND SAFETY BUT WOULDPROVIDE GUIDANCE ABOUT THE REQUIRED DAMAGE MITIGATION/REPAIR PROCEDURES.THE ALGORITHMS ESPECIALLY WILL BE TESTED IN A COMPOSITE AILERON FROM C-17 AIRCRAFT FOR VERIFICATION AT NASALANGLEY RESEARCH CENTER. NCSU S EXISTING HARDWARE WILL BE USED FOR INSTRUMENTATION AND SENSOR CONFIGURATIONWILL BE MODIFIED ACCORDINGLY BASED ON THEORETICALREQUIREMENTS OF THE PROPOSED TECHNOLOGIES.