SUPERVISION DEVICE FOR AN AIRCRAFT, ASSOCIATED SUPERVISION SYSTEM, SUPERVISION METHOD, COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT AND NON-TRANSITORY COMPUTER READABLE MEDIUM

• US 20150134153A1
• Filed: 11/13/2014
• Published: 05/14/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/2013
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Thales SA
• Original Assignee: Thales SA
• Inventors: Coulmeau, Francois, Rossi, Nicolas, Bonnafoux, Arnaud
• Application Number:
  US14/540,725
• Publication Number:
  US 20150134153A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/3
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0283 Predictive maintenance, e.g. involving the monitoring of a system and, based on the monitoring results, taking decisions on the maintenance schedule of the monitored system; Estimating remaining useful life [RUL] preventive maintenance, i.e. planning maintenance according to the available resources without monitoring the system G06Q10/06
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/00 Control of position, course, altitude or attitude of land, water, air or space vehicles, e.g. using automatic pilots drive control systems specially adapted for autonomous road vehicles B60W60/00

Abstract

A supervision device for an aircraft including a plurality of avionics systems, each avionics system being able to generate parameters representative of its operation on a reference date, includes a plurality of prediction modules, each prediction module including a computer for computing projections representative of the trajectory of the aircraft and/or representative of the operation of at least one avionics system on a corresponding prediction date, the prediction date being after the reference date, at least one projection computed by a prediction module depending on at least one other projection computed by another prediction module.

Claims

1. A supervision device for an aircraft having a plurality of avionics systems, each avionics system being configured to generate parameters representative of a respective operation on a reference date, the supervision device comprising:

a plurality of prediction modules, each prediction module comprising a computer for computing projections representative of a trajectory of the aircraft or representative of the respective operation of at least one of the plurality avionics systems on a corresponding prediction date, the prediction date being after the reference date,

at least one projection computed by one of the plurality of prediction modules depending on at least one other projection computed by another prediction module of the plurality of prediction modules,

the one prediction module including a controller capable of commanding the respective computer to compute the at least one projection in case of a variation in the value of the parameters or the at least one other projection of the other prediction module on which the projection of the one prediction module depends.

2. The device as recited in claim 1 wherein the other prediction module includes a transmitter for sending a projection computation request to the one prediction module.

3. The device as recited in claim 2 wherein the one prediction module includes a receiver for receiving the projection computation request and the controller is configured to command the respective computer to compute projections if the projection computation request is received.

4. The device as recited in claim 1 wherein the controller or a further controller is configured to command the computer to compute the projection after a predetermined latency duration.

5. The device as recited in claim 1 wherein the computer is configured to estimate the likelihood that a magnitude associated with the projection will assume, on a date after the reference date, a value calculated by the computer for the projection on said date.

6. The device as recited in claim 5 wherein for the at least one prediction module, the computer is configured to compute the at least one projection on a prediction date such that the likelihood that the magnitude associated with said projection will assume, on the prediction date, the value computed for said projection for said date, is equal to a predetermined target value.

7. The device as recited in claim 5 wherein for the at least one prediction module, the computer is configured to compute the projection on the prediction date such that a time shift between said reference date and the prediction date is equal to a second predetermined target value.

8. The device as recited in claim 6 wherein for the at least one prediction module, the computer is configured to compute the projection on the prediction date such that a time shift between said reference date and the prediction date is equal to a second predetermined target value.

9. The device as recited in claim 1 wherein the at least one prediction module is configured to perform one function from among trajectory prediction, status prediction of the systems of the aircraft and aircraft performance prediction, the performance prediction corresponding to the computation of a deviation between a magnitude relative to the aircraft and a predetermined reference value.

10. The device as recited in claim 9 wherein the magnitude relative to the aircraft is consumption or control surface travel.

11. A supervision system comprising the supervision device as recited in claim 1 and the plurality of avionics systems.

12. The system as recited in claim 11 wherein the avionics systems include at least one element from the group consisting of:

a flight management system, an automatic pilot, a taxi system, a monitoring system, a communication system, a centralized maintenance system, and a built-in test equipment.

13. A supervision method implemented by the device as recited in claim 1, the method comprising:

a computation step for computing projections representative of a trajectory of the aircraft or representative of a respective operation of at least one system on a corresponding prediction date, the prediction date being after the reference date,

at least one projection computed by a prediction module depending on at least one other projection computed by another prediction module.

14. The method as recited in claim 13 further comprising the following steps:

sending a request for the computation of the at least one projection from a requesting prediction module to a responding prediction module;

receiving the requested projection coming from the responding prediction module; and

using the requesting prediction module to compute at least one projection based on the received projection.

15. A computer program product comprising software instructions which, when executed by a computer, implement the method as recited in claim 13.

16. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising a computer program including software instructions which, when executed by a computer, implement the method as recited in claim 13.