kofn: Maximum Likelihood Estimation for k-Out-of-n System Data

Maximum likelihood estimation of component lifetime parameters from system-level observations of k-out-of-n systems. Supports exponential and Weibull component distributions under multiple observation schemes: Scheme 0 (system lifetime only), Scheme 1 (periodic inspection), and Scheme 2 (complete monitoring). Provides an EM algorithm for Weibull parallel systems and Fisher information comparison across schemes. The k-out-of-n framework unifies series (k=1) and parallel (k=m) systems as a censoring problem on component lifetimes. Conforms to the 'likelihood.model' generics and returns fitted objects compatible with 'algebraic.mle'. The data-generating process and topology infrastructure (system survival, density, signature, structure function, importance measures) are delegated to the 'dist.structure' package; 'kofn' focuses exclusively on inference for the k-out-of-n family.

Version: 0.4.0
Depends: R (≥ 4.1.0)
Imports: stats, numDeriv, likelihood.model, compositional.mle, generics, dist.structure, algebraic.dist, flexhaz (≥ 0.5.2)
Suggests: algebraic.mle, maskedcauses, testthat (≥ 3.0.0), knitr, rmarkdown
Published: 2026-06-19
DOI: 10.32614/CRAN.package.kofn (may not be active yet)
Author: Alexander Towell ORCID iD [aut, cre]
Maintainer: Alexander Towell <lex at metafunctor.com>
BugReports: https://github.com/queelius/kofn/issues
License: MIT + file LICENSE
URL: https://github.com/queelius/kofn, https://queelius.github.io/kofn/
NeedsCompilation: no
Materials: README, NEWS
CRAN checks: kofn results

Documentation:

Reference manual: kofn.html , kofn.pdf
Vignettes: dist.structure integration (source, R code)
Inside kofn: Building on the rlang MLE Stack (source, R code)
Exponential Parallel Systems: Closed-Form MLE via Inclusion-Exclusion (source, R code)
Getting started with kofn (source, R code)
Observation Scheme Composability (source, R code)
Observation Schemes: Resolving Information Asymmetry via Periodic Inspection (source, R code)
Weibull Parallel Systems: EM Algorithm for Shape-Scale Estimation (source, R code)

Downloads:

Package source: kofn_0.4.0.tar.gz
Windows binaries: r-devel: not available, r-release: not available, r-oldrel: not available
macOS binaries: r-release (arm64): kofn_0.4.0.tgz, r-oldrel (arm64): kofn_0.4.0.tgz, r-release (x86_64): kofn_0.4.0.tgz, r-oldrel (x86_64): not available

Linking:

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