Aircraft Part Control System

• US 20120306666A1
• Filed: 06/03/2011
• Published: 12/06/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/03/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Original Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Inventors: Li, Winfeng, Ayyagari, Arun, Kumar, Anil, Blackwell, David B., Ung, Kevin Yong, Xu, Alekzander Hao
• Granted Patent: US 8,791,823 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/945
• CPC Class Codes: B64F 5/60 Testing or inspecting aircraft components or systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders

Abstract

A method and apparatus for managing parts. Location information is displayed for a part on an aircraft on a mobile device. A determination is made as to whether the part is present in a location using a sensor system in the mobile device when the mobile device is in a zone including the location. A presence of the part in the location is indicated in response to the part being present in the location.

Claims

1. A method for managing parts, the method comprising:

displaying location information for a part on an aircraft on a mobile device;

determining whether the part is present in a location using a sensor system in the mobile device when the mobile device is in a zone including the location; and

responsive to the part being present in the location, indicating a presence of the part in the location.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

responsive to the part being absent from the location, indicating an absence of the part in the location.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying the location information for the part on the aircraft comprises:

displaying a diagram identifying a zone in the aircraft in which the part is located.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein displaying the location information for the part on the aircraft further comprises:

displaying a location of the mobile device relative to the part in the aircraft.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein displaying the location information for the part on the aircraft further comprises:

displaying an image of the zone.

6. The method claim 5, wherein the image of the zone is displayed when the mobile device is located in the zone.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein displaying at least one of the image of the zone and a video of the zone comprises:

displaying the at least one of the image of the zone and the video of the zone with a visual identifier identifying the part in the at least one of the image and the video.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the part is present in the location using the sensor system in the mobile device when the mobile device is in the zone including the location comprises:

obtaining information from a tag; and

determining whether the information is for the part.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein obtaining the information from the tag comprises:

positioning the mobile device relative to the location such that the information is obtained from the tag in the location.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the sensor system comprises a radio frequency identification reader and the tag is a radio frequency identification tag.

11. An apparatus comprising:

a mobile device configured to display location information for a part on an aircraft on the mobile device;

determine whether the part is present in a location using a sensor system in the mobile device when the mobile device is in a zone including the location; and

indicate a presence of the part in the location in response to the part being present in the location.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the mobile device is configured to be responsive to the part being absent from the location.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein in being configured to display the location information for the part on the aircraft, the mobile device is configured to display a diagram identifying a zone in the aircraft in which the part is located.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein in being configured to display the location information for the part on the aircraft, the mobile device is further configured to display a location of the mobile device relative to the part in the aircraft.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein in being configured to display the location information for the part on the aircraft, the mobile device is further configured to display an image of the zone.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the image of the zone is displayed when the mobile device is located in the zone.

17. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein in being configured to display at least one of the image of the zone and a video of the zone, the mobile device is configured to display the at least one of the image of the zone and the video of the zone with a visual identifier identifying the part in the at least one of the image and the video.

18. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein in being configured to determine whether the part is present in the location using the sensor system in the mobile device when the mobile device is in the zone including the location, the mobile device is configured to obtain information from a tag and determine whether the information is for the part.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the sensor system comprises a radio frequency identification reader and the tag is a radio frequency identification tag.

20. The apparatus of claim 11 further comprising:

a computer system, wherein the computer system is configured to identify a number of parts to be located, create a list of the number of parts, identify location information and identification information for the number of parts, and send the list of the number of parts, the location information for the number of parts, and the identification information for the number of parts to the mobile device.