Failures in high value, safety-critical, inaccessible, and productivity-critical systems is an area of significant research interest. Despite advances in predictive and continuous maintenance services, there is still a need for a more ambitious approach to preserve a system’s functions despite degradation and damage. This paper presents the concept of a self-engineering (SE) system which utilises techniques such as self-healing, self-repairing, self-adapting and self-reconfiguration to enable a system to respond autonomously to a loss or potential loss in its function. Two types of SE systems are outlined, systems with control and systems without control. A taxonomy of these key techniques and related concepts is presented. This review focuses primarily on physical SE systems, rather than the control and software systems where SE concepts are well advanced. Technology within mechanical, civil, electrical and electronics, mechatronics engineering disciplines and repair robotics is reviewed. Finally, key research gaps identified are discussed.

高价值、安全关键、不可访问和生产力关键系统的故障是一个重要的研究领域。尽管在预测性和持续性维护服务方面取得了进步，但仍然需要一种更雄心勃勃的方法来保护系统功能，尽管系统会出现退化和损坏。本文提出了自工程 (SE) 系统的概念，该系统利用自愈、自修复、自适应和自重构等技术，使系统能够自主应对其功能的损失或潜在损失。 . 概述了两种类型的 SE 系统，有控制的系统和无控制的系统。介绍了这些关键技术和相关概念的分类。本评论主要关注物理 SE 系统，而不是 SE 概念非常先进的控制和软件系统。审查了机械、土木、电气和电子、机电一体化工程学科和维修机器人技术中的技术。最后，讨论了确定的关键研究差距。