Method, devices and program for computer-aided preventive diagnostics of an aircraft system, using critical event charts

• US 20130274992A1
• Filed: 04/11/2013
• Published: 10/17/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/12/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Airbus Operations (European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company EADS NV)
• Original Assignee: Airbus, Airbus Operations (European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company EADS NV)
• Inventors: Roger, Jeremy, Cheriere, Vincent, Debray, Vincent, Fabre, Benjamin, Chantal, Philippe
• Granted Patent: US 9,399,526 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/32.9
• CPC Class Codes: B64F 5/40 Maintaining or repairing aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0248 Causal models, e.g. fault tree; digraphs; qualitative physics
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0739 in a data processing system embedded in automotive or aircraft systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/079 Root cause analysis, i.e. error or fault diagnosis in a hardware test environment G06F11/22; in a software test environment G06F11/36

Abstract

Aided preventive diagnostics of an aircraft system, comprising a plurality of subsystems at least one of which comprises a subsystem configured for monitoring and notifying a detected event, using critical event charts. After receiving a message notifying the occurrence of said detected event, a minimal diagnostic set relative to said at least one detected event, comprising a plurality of elements each represented by a node of said critical event chart is created, each element of said minimal diagnostic set being determined according to at least one logical implication relation of said critical event chart with a node representing said at least one received notification message. At least some of the elements of said minimal diagnostic set are then ranked, said ranked elements forming part of said diagnostic report.

Claims

1. A method for the computer-aided preparation of a diagnostic report for a complex system of an aircraft comprising a plurality of subsystems, at least one subsystem of said plurality of subsystems comprising a subsystem configured for monitoring and notification of at least one detected event, the method comprising:

implementing a critical event chart at least partially modelling said complex system, said critical event chart comprising a plurality of nodes, each node of said plurality of nodes being linked by a logical implication relation to at least one other node of said plurality of nodes, said plurality of nodes comprising;

a plurality of nodes each representing a notification message capable of being received;

at least one node representing a critical event; and

,

a plurality of nodes each representing an element of said complex system, each element represented by a node being liable to failure;

receiving at least one notification message of the occurrence of said at least one detected event;

creating a minimal diagnostic set relative to said at least one detected event, comprising a plurality of elements each represented by a node of said critical event chart, each element of said minimal diagnostic set being determined according to at least one logical implication relation of said critical event chart with a node representing said at least one received notification message; and

ranking at least some of said elements of said minimal diagnostic set, said ranked elements forming part of said diagnostic report.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising a step of obtaining data representative of a diagnostic history of said complex system, said ranking step being at least partially based on said data representative of said diagnostic history.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein said step of ranking at least some of the elements of said minimal diagnostic set comprises a step of ranking at least some of said minimal diagnostics.

4. The method according to claim 3, further comprising a step of calculating the persistence weighting of each element of a plurality of elements of said minimal diagnostic set, said persistence weighting calculation being based on the presence of each element of said plurality of elements of said minimal diagnostic set in a minimal diagnostic set of said diagnostic history, said ranking of at least some of said minimal diagnostics being at least partially based on results of said persistence weighting calculation.

5. The method according to claim 3, further comprising a step of prioritizing elements of said minimal diagnostic set.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein said step of ranking at least some of the elements of said minimal diagnostic set comprises a step of ranking problems resulting from said minimal diagnostics.

7. The method according to claim 6, further comprising a step of calculating the persistence weighting of each problem of a plurality of problems resulting from said minimal diagnostics, said ranking of problems being at least partially based on results of said persistence weighting calculation.

8. The method according to claim 1, further comprising a step of selecting at least one notification message capable of being received represented by a node of said critical event chart and a step of identifying elements of said minimal diagnostic set capable of resulting in the generation of said at least one selected notification message, said identified elements forming part of said diagnostic report.

9. The method according to claim 8, further comprising a step of calculating a remaining distance before an imminent effect for at least one of said identified elements, said remaining distance being calculated as a function of the number of elements that do not form part of said minimal diagnostic set and a malfunction of which is necessary to the generation of said at least one selected notification message.

10. The method according to claim 8, further comprising a step of obtaining and assigning attributes to said identified elements.

11. The method according to claim 1, further comprising a step of selecting at least one failure resolution procedure involving at least one element of said minimal diagnostic set.

12. The method according to claim 1, according to which said critical event chart is at least partially generated by instantiation of at least one generic subchart.

14. An aircraft maintenance system comprising a calculator comprising means for implementing each of the steps of the method according to claim 1.

15. An aircraft comprising the system according to claim 14.

13. A computer program comprising instructions stored on a non-transient memory suitable for the implementation of each of the steps of the method according to claim a when said program is executed on a computer.