AIRCRAFT FLIGHT DATA MONITORING AND REPORTING SYSTEM AND USE THEREOF

• US 20160036513A1
• Filed: 04/22/2013
• Published: 02/04/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/22/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Latitude Technologies Corporation
• Original Assignee: Latitude Technologies Corporation
• Inventors: Klippert, Chad, Curtis, Timothy, Insley, Mark, Head, Bradley, Martin, David, Haustein, Gerry, Nugent, Andrew, Zarikoff, Brad
• Granted Patent: US 10,075,228 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B64D 2045/0085 Devices for aircraft health monitoring, e.g. monitoring flutter or vibration
• CPC Class Codes: B64D 45/00 Aircraft indicators or protectors not otherwise provided for camouflage F41H3/00
• CPC Class Codes: B64F 5/60 Testing or inspecting aircraft components or systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/155 Ground-based stations H04B7/204 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5058 Service discovery by the service manager
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4511 using domain name system [DNS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5007 Internet protocol [IP] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/40 for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/42 for mass transport vehicles, e.g. buses, trains or aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/44 for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 Access point devices

Abstract

An aircraft flight data monitoring and reporting system is provided. The system comprises: an onboard flight data recording and reporting unit; a zero-configuration service discoverer; a remote base station; a remote flight data monitoring storage and analysis unit; a wireless communication link; and a network, the wireless communication link and network for communications between the aircraft flight data monitoring and reporting system and each of the base station and the flight data monitoring storage and analysis unit, wherein the zero-configuration service discoverer facilitates auto-discovering between the flight data recording and reporting unit and the base station.

Claims

1. An aircraft flight data monitoring and reporting system, the system comprising:

an onboard flight data recording and reporting unit;

a zero-configuration service discoverer;

a remote base station;

a remote flight data monitoring storage and analysis unit;

a wireless communication link; and

a network, the wireless communication link and network for communications between the aircraft flight data monitoring and reporting system and each of the base station and the flight data monitoring storage and analysis unit, wherein the zero-configuration service discoverer facilitates auto-discovering between the flight data recording and reporting unit and the base station.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the flight data monitoring storage and analysis unit is in a cloud.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising an observation station in communication with the base station and the flight data recording and reporting unit.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the base station is a mobile base station.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the mobile base station comprises a personal hot spot for communicating via the internet.

6. The system of claim 4, further comprising a second mobile device comprising a zero-configuration service discoverer.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the second mobile device is configured to communicate with the flight data recording and reporting unit and the mobile base station the via the internet.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the zero-configuration service discoverer is a zero configuration multicast DNS standard (mDNS) with DNS-SD Service Discovery.

9. The system of claim 6, wherein the system is configured for bi-directional communication.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the flight data recording and reporting unit has a central processor and a communications module, and the central processor comprises a communication protocol and handling methods that operate between it and the communications module.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the system is configured to provide data collection, analysis, identification of abnormal events and triggering.

12. The system of claim 3, wherein the system is configured to provide post mission flight visualization via an observation station.

32. A method of recording and reporting flight data, the method comprising utilizing the system of claim 1.

34. The method of claim 32, wherein the networking is pervasive networking.

36. The method of claim 32, further comprising the step of the base station communicating back to the flight data recording and reporting unit.

38. The method of claim 36, wherein communicating is bi-directional.

40. The method of claim 38, further comprising the observation station providing post mission flight visualization.

42. The method of claim 40, wherein reporting is autonomous.

13. An aircraft flight data monitoring and reporting system, the system comprising:

an onboard flight data recording and reporting unit;

a remote base station;

a remote flight data monitoring storage and analysis unit;

a wireless communication link; and

a network, the wireless communication link and network for communications between the aircraft flight data monitoring and reporting system and each of the base station and the flight data monitoring storage and analysis unit, wherein the system is configured for bi-directional communication.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the flight data recording and reporting unit has a central processor and a communications module, and the central processor comprises a communication protocol and handling methods that operate between it and the communications module.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the flight data monitoring storage and analysis unit is in a cloud.

16. The system of claim 15, further comprising a zero-configuration service discoverer wherein the zero-configuration service discoverer facilitates auto-discovering between the flight data recording and reporting unit and the base station.

17. The system of claim 16, further comprising an observation station in communication with the base station and the flight data recording and reporting unit.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the base station is a mobile base station.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the mobile base station comprises a personal hot spot for communicating via the internet.

20. The system of claim 18, further comprising a second mobile device comprising a zero-configuration service discoverer.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the second mobile device is configured to communicate with the flight data recording and reporting unit and the mobile base station the via the internet.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the system is configured to provide data collection, analysis, identification of abnormal events and triggering.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the system is configured to provide post mission flight visualization via an observation station.

24. The system of claim 21, further comprising a Flight Management System Computer (FMSC), an input device connected to the FMSC, and a display device.

25. An onboard flight data recording and reporting unit for use in an aircraft flight data monitoring and reporting system, the unit comprising a central processor comprising a communication protocol and handling methods that operate between it and a communications module to facilitate bi-directional communication between the flight data recording and reporting unit and the aircraft flight data monitoring and reporting system.

26. The onboard flight data recording and reporting unit of claim 25, wherein the central processor further comprises instructions for autonomous reporting.

27. The onboard flight data recording and reporting unit of claim 25, wherein the central processor further comprises instructions for pervasive networking.

28. The onboard flight data recording and reporting unit of claim 25, the unit configured to provide Flight Data Monitoring (FDM), including Air Data and Attitude Heading and Reference Systems (ADHRS), Quick Access Recorder (QAR), Wireless Data Link (WDL), Read Out Subscriber Equipment (ROSE), Flight Data Recorder (FDR) and engine data.

29. The onboard flight data recording and reporting unit of claim 28 further comprising a battery backup, a 3-axis accelerometer, a 3-axis gyroscope, a solid-state compass, pitot pressure sensor, static pressure sensor, differential pressure sensor, a temperature sensor, an inertial measurement unit, a Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) feed or an internal GPS, and an internal real-time clock.

30. The onboard flight data recording and reporting unit of claim 26, further comprising Finite State Machine heuristics monitoring and a real time reporting system.

31. The flight data recording and reporting unit of claim 25, wherein the communications module is configured to utilize auto discovery and zero configuration networking.

33. A method of reporting flight data to a base station, the method comprising the steps of:

auto-discovering and zero-configuring between the flight data recording and reporting unit and the base station;

networking; and

reporting.

35. The method of claim 33 wherein the reporting is autonomous reporting.

37. A method of communicating data in an aircraft flight data monitoring and reporting system, the system comprising:

an onboard flight data recording and reporting unit;

a base station;

a remote flight data monitoring storage and analysis unit;

a wireless communication link; and

a network, the method comprising auto-discovering and zero-configuring between the flight data recording and reporting unit and the base station, networking, and reporting.

39. The method of claims 37, further comprising the onboard flight data recording and reporting unit communicating with an observation station.

41. The method of claim 37, wherein reporting is in real-time.