INTERACTIVE ELECTRONIC TECHNICAL MANUAL SYSTEM WITH DATABASE INSERTION AND RETRIEVAL

• US 20080120282A1
• Filed: 11/21/2006
• Published: 05/22/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lockheed Martin Corporation (Martin Marietta Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Lockheed Martin Corporation (Martin Marietta Corporation)
• Inventors: Liberty, Matthew R., Wilde, Bruce R.
• Granted Patent: US 7,823,062 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/4
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/81 Indexing, e.g. XML tags; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/838 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

A Class V Interactive Electronic Technical Manual (IETM) system that allows remote diagnostic engineers to interact directly with on-site maintenance technicians and a system under test. In addition, the IETM system permits automatic synchronization of files on a maintenance technician'"'"'s portable electronic display device. The IETM system is also capable of dynamically displaying asset specific information and dynamically displaying technical information in multiple languages. The IETM system also includes a database processing system and method for inserting into a database and retrieving from database documents formatted in accordance with a markup language.

Claims

1. A method for dynamically displaying information about a system under test using an interactive electronic technical manual system, wherein said system under test is associated with at least one system key, comprising the steps of:

receiving mark-up language data at the interactive electronic technical manual system, wherein a portion of said mark-up language data includes at least one translation key and a plurality of identifiers, said at least one translation key corresponding to a system key associated with the system under test;

filtering the mark-up language data using a first style sheet to provide filtered mark-up language data;

displaying the filtered mark-up language data by the interactive electronic technical manual system;

associating a tag with one of a plurality of identifiers;

generating a hash table comprising a plurality of levels, wherein each one of said plurality of levels is hierarchically related to another one of said plurality of levels, and wherein each one of said plurality of levels is associated with one of said plurality of identifiers;

determining each occurrence of one of the plurality of identifiers within the mark-up language data by searching the mark-up language data for a text stream that matches the identifier using a second style sheet; and

generating a hash table index comprising at least one index key, wherein the at least one index key comprises at least one of the plurality of identifiers;

wherein the first style sheet filters the mark-up language data by comparing a value of each translation key with a value of the system key that corresponds to the translation key, and removing any mark-up language data whose translation key value does not match the value of the corresponding system key.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the mark-up language is extensible markup language (XML).

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

selecting the at least one identifier; and

modifying the second style sheet to use the at least one selected identifier.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

performing data compression on the mark-up language data to form a compressed document; and

inserting the compressed document text into the local memory and the hard disk of the database according to an insertion page comprising database insertion instructions provided in accordance with a second mark-up language.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

determining whether or not the local memory size has exceeded a target threshold size; and

removing, if the target threshold size has been exceeded, the oldest information from the local memory to maintain the local memory size below the target threshold size.

6. An interactive electronic technical manual system for diagnosing faults in a complex system, comprising:

a client tier component, wherein the client tier component is configured to interface with the complex system according to a mark-up language encoded diagnostic fault flow;

a middleware tier component, wherein the middleware tier component is configured to receive a request for execution of a diagnostic fault flow from a remote computer and to cause the client tier component to execute the requested diagnostic fault flow; and

a server tier component comprising

a database, said database storing mark-up language encoded diagnostic fault flows;

an information storage and retrieval application coupled to the database and configured to receive mark-up language information and database requests from a client device and further comprising a translator portion configured to generate a key based on each occurrence of a selected attribute occurring in a file, the selected attribute being specified using a first style sheet; and

a memory manager.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the memory manager further comprises:

a local memory including a hash table index and a hash table;

wherein the translator portion is configured to form the key using at least one identifier associated with the selected attribute and to add one or more keys to the hash table index in accordance with a second style sheet.

8. The system of claim 7,

wherein the at least one identifier comprises a top-level identifier and at least one sub-level identifier, and wherein the at least one sub-level identifier and the top-level identifier are hierarchically related;

and

wherein the top-level identifier is associated with a document comprising input information, and wherein each of the at least one sub-level identifiers is identified with a portion of the input information.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the translator portion is further configured to insert input information into the database in accordance with an insertion instruction page, and to transform information received from the database in accordance with a third style sheet.

10. The system of claim 6,

wherein said request for execution of a diagnostic fault flow comprises a diagnostic fault flow identifier, and said middleware tier component is configured to request a mark-up language encoded diagnostic fault flow from the server tier component database corresponding to the diagnostic fault flow identifier, and to cause the client tier component to execute the mark-up language encoded diagnostic fault flow that corresponds to the diagnostic fault flow identifier;

and

wherein the mark-up language encoded diagnostic fault flow corresponding to the diagnostic fault flow identifier is sent from the server tier component as an object access protocol message to the middleware tier component.

11. The system of claim 6, wherein said request for execution of a diagnostic fault flow comprises a mark-up language encoded diagnostic fault flow process, and said middleware tier component is configured to cause the client tier component to execute the mark-up language encoded diagnostic fault flow process in said request.

12. The system of claim 6, wherein said client tier component is configured to interface with the complex electronic system by requesting execution of a built-in-test and receiving the results of the requested built-in-test.

13. The system of claim 6, wherein the server tier component is distributed on a network server computer and the client tier component is distributed on a portable electronic display device.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the middleware tier component is logically distributed between the network server computer and the portable electronic display device.

15. The system of claim 6, wherein the server tier component, the middleware tier component and the client tier component are each distributed on a portable electronic display device.

16. The system of claim 6, wherein the server tier component is stored on both a network server computer and a portable electronic display device, and wherein the middleware tier component synchronizes the server tier component database on the portable electronic display device with the server tier component database on the network server by copying files from the network server to the portable electronic display device when the portable electronic display device is connected to the network server over a network.

17. The system of claim 6, wherein the complex system is a helicopter.

18. A method for dynamically displaying information about diagnosing faults in an aircraft under test using an interactive electronic technical manual system, wherein said system under test is associated with at least one system key, comprising the steps of:

receiving mark-up language data at the interactive electronic technical manual system, wherein a portion of said mark-up language data includes at least one translation key and a plurality of identifiers, said at least one translation key corresponding to a system key associated with the aircraft under test;

filtering the mark-up language data using a first style sheet to provide filtered mark-up language data;

displaying the filtered mark-up language data by the interactive electronic technical manual system;

associating a tag with one of the plurality of identifiers;

determining each occurrence of one of the plurality of identifiers within the mark-up language data by searching the mark-up language data for a text stream that matches the identifier using a second style sheet; and

generating a hash table index comprising at least one index key, wherein the at least one index key comprises at least one of the plurality of identifiers;

wherein the first style sheet filters the mark-up language data by comparing a value of each translation key with a value of the system key that corresponds to the translation key.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

removing any mark-up language data whose translation key value does not match the value of the corresponding system key; and

wherein the hash table comprises a plurality of levels, wherein each one of said plurality of levels is hierarchically related to another one of said plurality of levels, and wherein each one of said plurality of levels is associated with one of said plurality of identifiers.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the aircraft is a helicopter.

21. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

outputting the filtered mark-up language data to a handheld device.