Artificial Immune System Approaches for Aerospace Applications

Artificial Immune Systems (AIS) combine a priori knowledge with the adapting capabilities of biological immune systems to provide a powerful alternative to currently available techniques for pattern recognition, modeling, design, and control. Immunology is the science of built-in defense mechanisms that are present in all living beings to protect against external attacks. A biological immune system can be thought of as a robust, adaptive system that is capable of dealing with an enormous variety of disturbances and uncertainties. Biological immune systems use a finite number of discrete "building blocks" to achieve this adaptiveness. These building blocks can be thought of as pieces of a puzzle, which must be put together in a specific way to neutralize, remove, or destroy each unique disturbance the system encounters. In this paper, we outline AIS models that are immediately applicable to aerospace problems and identify application areas that need further investigation.