Modeling the reliability of threshold weighted voting systems

• Published in: Reliability engineering & system safety Vol. 87; no. 1; pp. 53 - 63
• Main Authors: Xie, Minge, Pham, Hoang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 2005; Elsevier
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Computer science; control theory; systems; Computer systems performance. Reliability; Exact sciences and technology; Iterative reliability function; Saddle point approximation; Software; System reliability; Time dependent system; Weighted threshold voting; Saddle point approximation; System reliability; Weighted threshold voting; Iterative reliability function; Time dependent system; Optimal stopping; Failures; Saddle point; System reliability: Weighted threshold voting; Time dependence; Safety systems; Data acquisition system; Voting; Threshold function; System monitoring; Target detection
• ISSN: 0951-8320; 1879-0836
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ress.2004.04.001

In many applications, ranging from target detection to safety monitoring systems, we are interested in determining whether or not to accept a hypothesis based on the information available. In this paper we model the reliability of threshold weighted voting systems (WVS) with multi-failure-modes, where a general recursive reliability function of the WVS is presented. We also develop approximation formulas for calculating the reliability of WVS based on a large number of units. We also develop reliability functions of time-dependent threshold weighted voting systems, where each unit is a function of time. Finally, the optimal stopping time that minimizes the total cost of the systems subject to a reliability constraint is discussed.