Fault monitoring for vehicles

• US 10,235,819 B2
• Filed: 10/20/2017
• Issued: 03/19/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 12/11/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Original Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Inventors: Leung, Jonathan, Pontrello, Brian, Hirst, Roxanne, Carnegie, Cameron L., Noman, Rashed M., Friedrichs, Johanne
• Primary Examiner(s): Marc-Coleman, Marthe Y
• Application Number:
  US15/789,510
• Publication Number:
  US 20180061152A1
• Time in Patent Office: 515 Days
• Field of Search: 701 293, 701 308, 701 316, 701 43, 714 25, 714 39, 714E11024, 714 48
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/20 Administration of product repair or maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0825 using optical means
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0841 Registering performance data recording measured values G01D; information storage G11B

Abstract

Method and apparatus for calculating probabilities of service interruptions based on fault event indications. Instances of fault event indications are filtered to remove duplicate indications for the same fault event. Then a probability of the fault event indication causing a service interruption is calculated by dividing a number of service interruptions caused by instances of the fault event indication by the number of fault event indications. In the event that a particular fault event indication is associated with a high probability of causing a service interruption, a message can be automatically generated and transmitted upon receipt of a future instance of the service interruption. The message can provide information related to short-term solutions to address the fault event, long-term solutions to address the fault event, and parts and tools for addressing the fault event.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving a signal from a vehicle-based sensor, the signal comprising an indication for a predefined fault event;

determining, using a computer processor, whether the indication is a duplicate indication for the fault event;

determining, responsive to determining that the indication is not a duplicate indication, whether a service interruption occurred responsive to the indication;

updating, using the computer processor, a service interruption probability value for the fault event responsive to determining that the indication is not a duplicate fault event indication; and

responsive to the updated service interruption probability value exceeding a predetermined threshold level, transmitting a message corresponding to the fault event.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the indication is a duplicate indication comprises:

determining whether the indication occurs within a predetermined fault event resolution time period associated with the fault event.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

maintaining a total number of service interruptions for the fault event; and

maintaining a total number of fault event indications for the fault event,

wherein the service interruption probability value is calculated based on the total number of service interruptions divided by the total number of fault event indications.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein updating the service interruption probability value for the fault event comprises incrementing the total number of fault event indications for the fault event.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein updating the service interruption probability value for the fault event comprises:

incrementing the total number of service interruptions for the fault event responsive to determining that the service interruption occurred responsive to the indication.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the message corresponding to the fault event comprises transmitting the message to a maintenance server.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the service interruption probability value for the fault event is maintained across a plurality of vehicles.

8. A computer program product, comprising:

a computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program code embodied therewith, the computer-readable program code executable by one or more computer processors to perform an operation comprising;

receiving a signal from a vehicle-based sensor, the signal comprising an indication for a predefined fault event;

determining, using a computer processor, whether the indication is a duplicate indication for the fault event;

determining, responsive to determining that the indication is not a duplicate indication, whether a service interruption occurred responsive to the indication;

updating, using the computer processor, a service interruption probability value for the fault event responsive to determining that the indication is not a duplicate fault event indication; and

responsive to the updated service interruption probability value exceeding a predetermined threshold level, transmitting a message corresponding to the fault event.

9. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein determining whether the indication is a duplicate indication comprises:

determining whether the indication occurs within a predetermined fault event resolution time period associated with the fault event.

10. The computer program product of claim 8, the operation further comprising:

maintaining a total number of service interruptions for the fault event; and

maintaining a total number of fault event indications for the fault event,

wherein the service interruption probability value is calculated based on the total number of service interruptions divided by the total number of fault event indications.

11. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein updating the service interruption probability value for the fault event comprises incrementing the total number of fault event indications for the fault event.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein updating the service interruption probability value for the fault event comprises:

incrementing the total number of service interruptions for the fault event responsive to determining that the service interruption occurred responsive to the indication.

13. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein transmitting the message corresponding to the fault event comprises transmitting the message to a maintenance server.

14. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the service interruption probability value for the fault event is maintained across a plurality of vehicles.

15. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, from a plurality of sensors corresponding to a plurality of vehicles, a plurality of fault event indications corresponding to a predefined fault event, wherein the plurality of fault event indications comprises one or more duplicate indications and one or more non-duplicate indications;

receiving, using a computer processor, service interruption data indicating whether a respective service interruption occurred responsive to each of the one or more non-duplicate indications;

updating, using the computer processor, a service interruption probability value for the fault event using the service interruption data; and

responsive to the updated service interruption probability value exceeding a predetermined threshold level, transmitting a fault event message corresponding to the fault event.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, further comprising:

determining the one or more duplicate indications by determining whether each of the plurality of fault event indications occurs within a predetermined fault event resolution time period associated with the fault event.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, wherein transmitting the fault event message corresponding to the fault event comprises:

communicating with an inventory management system to retrieve availability information for one or more replacement parts associated with the fault event; and

inserting the availability information for the one or more replacement parts into the fault event message.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 17, wherein transmitting the fault event message corresponding to the fault event further comprises:

accessing a predefined data structure to retrieve tool information identifying one or more tools corresponding to installation of the one or more replacement parts; and

inserting the tool information for the one or more tools into the fault event message.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, wherein transmitting the fault event message corresponding to the fault event comprises:

accessing a predefined data structure to retrieve workaround information associated with the fault event; and

inserting the workaround information into the fault event message.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, wherein the service interruption data is included in a periodic service interruption report.