Pavel P. Parkhomenko

Pavel P. Parkhomenko

Born: 

Friday, February 9, 1923

Passed away: 

Tuesday, May 5, 2020

Pavel Parkhomenko, in full Pavel Pavlovich Parkhomenko, Dr. Sci. (Eng.), Prof., Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, was a prominent expert in technical diagnosis and the theory of discrete control devices. He authored over 100 publications, including a two-volume monograph Osnovy tekhnicheskoi diagnostiki (Foundations of Technical Diagnosis), Moscow: Energiya, 1976 (vol. 1), 1981 (vol. 2). Parkhomenko had many inventions, particularly patents, and several implementations. The main areas of his research were the theory, methods, and means of technical diagnosis for computing devices as well as the theory of discrete devices, including their analysis and design methods.

In 1955, Parkhomenko was admitted to the Institute of Automation and Remote Control (IARC), the USSR Academy of Sciences, to the Laboratory of Remote Control, headed by Prof. M.A. Gavrilov. He studied the structural theory of relay devices, finite automata theory, and problems of circuit analysis and design; supervised the development and implementation of several logic machines for analyzing relay circuits in design bureaus. Parkhomenko extended the analysis and design principles of circuits to faulty discrete devices and other technical objects. In fact, he formed a new branch of engineering science, known as technical diagnosis. He formulated the subject of this science and the basic concepts and tasks of technical diagnosis; determined its place and connection with the theory of control and testing, reliability theory, and forecasting.

Parkhomenko led a group of employees who designed logic analyzers for relay-contact circuits and several prototypes of program-controlled machines for automated testing of various technical objects (telephone equipment, electric locomotives, airplanes, rocket control systems, etc.). In 1964, he initiated the formation of the new Laboratory of Logic Machines (Laboratory No. 27) at IARC and became its Head. Parkhomenko was the first Soviet developer of universal (variable-program) equipment for the automated testing of complex products during their manufacturing and operation. The equipment was implemented in the industry; two modifications of the PUMA testing machine were produced serially. The developments attracted attention and intensified the adoption of automatic testing in various sectors of the national economy. The novelty of those problems brought many young engineers to the Laboratory.

Later on, Laboratory No. 27 was renamed to the Laboratory of Technical Diagnosis and Fault Tolerance. Parkhomenko was its Head until 1994. He proposed the design principles of test and functional diagnosis systems and new objects considering the requirements of their diagnostic support. Parkhomenko’s refinement of the foundations of questionnaire theory extended the range of problems for optimizing diagnostic procedures.

The decision to hold all-Union annual schools and seminars on technical diagnosis was a powerful spur to the further development of the subject.

The annual schools and seminars on technical diagnosis, led by Parkhomenko, instilled a general interest in these problems and became an authoritative forum for all researchers and engineers involved in computer and control technology in the USSR. Since 1973, 18 Schools were held in total. Almost a hundred school graduates defended their candidate’s dissertations, and more than twenty became doctors of sciences. In addition, 6 All-Union Meetings on Technical Diagnosis and Fault Tolerance were organized.

Parkhomenko solved several interesting problems on system diagnosis and optimal resource allocation in multiprocessor systems with hypercube architectures. He proposed a new effective method for defining circuits in hypercubes and other Cayley graphs by circular sequences of graph edge weights.

Under Parkhomenko’s supervision, more than twenty candidate dissertations were defended. Several doctors of engineering consider themselves his students.

Parkhomenko was a member of two dissertation councils and Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the journal Automation and Remote Control.

Parkhomenko was a Great Scientist and an outstanding engineer and inventor. He tried and knew how to do everything with his own hands, whether it was a complex device or a summer cottage in the country, or exact meter models of Kizhi and Valaam. He was a wonderful Person, kind, principled, and strict.

Parkhomenko’s main books are as follows:

  1. Osnovy tekhnicheskoi diagnostiki. Tom 2: Optimizatsiya algoritmov diagnostirovaniya, apparaturnye sredstva (Foundations of Technical Diagnosis. Vol. 2. Optimization of Diagnostic Algorithms, Hardware Means), Moscow: Energiya, 1981. — 320 p. (coauthor E.S. Sogomonyan);
  2. Osnovy tekhnicheskoi diagnostiki. Tom 1: Modeli ob"ektov, metody i algoritmy diagnoza (Foundations of Technical Diagnosis. Vol. 1. Models of Objects, Diagnostic Methods and Algorithms), Moscow: Energiya, 1976. — 464 p. (coauthor E.S. Sogomonyan, V.V. Karibskii, and V.F. Khalchev);
  3. O tekhnicheskoi diagnostike (About Technical Diagnosis), Moscow: Znanie, 1969. — 63 p.;
  4. Tekhnicheskaya diagnostika ob"ektov kontrolya (Technical Diagnosis of Monitored Objects), Moscow: Energiya, 1967. — 80 p. (coauthor V.V. Karibskii and E.S. Sogomonyan).

They are presented in the Institute’s database:
https://www.ipu.ru/d7ipu/books_library_grid?combine=Пархоменко

The list of journal papers by Parkhomenko is available at Math-Net.Ru:
https://www.mathnet.ru/php/person.phtml?&personid=49001&option_lang=eng

The list of his papers in Avtomatika i Telemekhanika can be found at:
https://www.mathnet.ru/php/search.phtml?jrnid=at&tjrnid=at&wshow=search&option_lang=eng

For their English versions, see the microfilm collection of Automation and Remote Control (1956—1994):
https://archive.org/details/pub_automation-and-remote-control

and the journal page at SpringerLink (2001—2022):
https://www.springer.com/journal/10513

Also, Parkhomenko’s publications, including inventions, are available at:
https://www.elibrary.ru/author_items.asp?authorid=4122&pubrole=100&show_refs=1&show_option=0

Browse the Institute’s database as well:
https://www.ipu.ru/pubs?combine=Пархоменко

Articles about P.P. Parkhomenko

1. Pavel Pavlovich ParkhomenkoProbl. Upr., 2020, no. 3, 84.
2. Pavel Pavlovich Parkhomenko (on the 90th Anniversary of Birth)Probl. Upr., 2013, no. 1, 86—87.
3. Pavel Pavlovich Parkhomenko. To the 90th AnniversaryAvtomat. i Telemekh., 2013, no. 2, 3—5.

Also, see the Wikipedia page devoted to Parkhomenko:
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Пархоменко,_Павел_Павлович

Scopus Author ID: 6603793436