METHOD OF IMPROVING THE INTEGRITY AND SAFETY OF AN AVIONICS SYSTEM

• US 20090070635A1
• Filed: 07/03/2008
• Published: 03/12/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/06/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Thales SA
• Original Assignee: Thales SA
• Inventors: DEPRAZ, David, Renard, Alain, Coatantiec, Jacques
• Application Number:
  US12/167,711
• Publication Number:
  US 20090070635A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/47
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0256 injecting test signals and analyzing monitored process response, e.g. injecting the test signal while interrupting the normal operation of the monitored system; superimposing the test signal onto a control signal during normal operation of the monitored system

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method of improving the integrity and safety of a system, this method making it possible, on the one hand, to detect and to locate an anomaly of a system, and on the other hand to estimate the impact of such an anomaly on the degradation of performance, with a view to attaining the safety level required and to making the data provided by this system safe, and this method is characterized in that it consists, in a system comprising sub-assemblies, in monitoring the proper operation of sub-assemblies by checking their respective transfer functions in the operational mode with the aid of stimuli dispatched to these sub-assemblies.

Claims

1. Method of improving the integrity and safety of a system, in a system having sub-assemblies, the steps of:

monitoring the proper operation of sub-assemblies or of their components by checking their respective transfer functions in the operational mode with the aid of stimuli dispatched to these sub-assemblies.

2. Method according to claim 1, wherein the stimuli are superimposed on the operational input signals of the sub-assemblies.

3. Method according to claim 1, wherein the stimuli are substituted in a momentary manner for the operational input signals of the sub-assemblies.

4. Method according to claim 1, wherein the monitoring is performed in a continuous manner.

5. Method according to claim 1, wherein the monitoring is performed in a cyclic manner with a recurrence frequency that is at minimum compatible with the safety requirements of the system.

6. Method according to claim 1, wherein the test stimuli are calculated and applied to the component or sub-assembly to be monitored in such a way that its theoretical response is identical to its last operational response.

7. Method according to claim 1, wherein it is implemented for a GNSS radionavigation receiver and that the stimuli are a local replica of the GNSS signals received, this replica being slaved to these signals.

8. Method according to claim 7, wherein the replica is an encrypted replica of the GNSS signal.

9. Device for implementing the method according to claim 1, for monitoring a system, wherein it comprises a stimuli generator, a device for managing the stimuli generator, and a device for analysing the output signals of the system to be made safe.

10. Device according to claim 9, wherein it also comprises a device for observing and controlling the responses and for estimating the safety obtained.

11. Device according to claim 9, wherein it forms part of a GNSS radionavigation receiver.

12. Method according to claim 11, wherein the stimuli generator is linked directly to an input of the circuit for formulating the pseudo-speed and pseudo-distance signals of the GNSS receiver.

13. Method according to claim 11, wherein the stimuli generator is linked by way of an RF transposition circuit and of a coupler to the antenna of the GNSS receiver.

14. Method according to claim 2, wherein the monitoring is performed in a continuous manner.

15. Method according to claim 3, wherein the monitoring is performed in a continuous manner.