Aviation field service report natural language processing

• US 7,949,444 B2
• Filed: 10/07/2005
• Issued: 05/24/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/07/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Original Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Inventors: Mukherjee, Joydeb
• Primary Examiner(s): Keith; Jack
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen; Chuong P
• Application Number:
  US11/245,659
• Publication Number:
  US 20070083300A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,055 Days
• Field of Search: 701/1, 701/3, 701/29, 701/35, 704/9, 702/183, 702/185, 702/187
• US Class Current: 701/29
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/243 Natural language query formulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24522 Translation of natural language queries to structured queries
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence

Abstract

An aircraft service information handling system comprises an input module operable to collect field service narrative data. A natural language data extraction module extracts problem data and related solution data from the narrative data, and a database module populates an aircraft service information database with the extracted problem data and the related extracted solution data. The database module further searches the database for populated problem data, and retrieves the related populated solution data.

Claims

1. A method of managing aircraft service information, comprising:

collecting unstructured field service narrative data utilizing self-training natural language processing algorithms;

performing a lexical analysis on the collected field service narrative data to identify the lexical class of each of a plurality of parts of speech existing therein;

parsing the collected field service narrative data based at least in part on the identified lexical class of each of the plurality of parts of speech;

extracting problem data from the narrative data based at least in part on the lexical analysis;

extracting solution data from the narrative data,

wherein at least one of extracting problem data and extracting solution data is performed on the narrative data automatically by machine, such that a text representation of the narrative data is processed by machine to distinguish and parse at least one of problem data and solution data from the narrative by the self-training natural language processing algorithms; and

populating an aircraft service information database with the extracted problem data and the related extracted solution data.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein collecting field service narrative data comprises performing voice recognition on a spoken narrative and converting it to a machine-readable form.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein populating an aircraft service information database comprises storing extracted problem data and related extracted solution data.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein in at least one of extracting problem data and extracting solution data from the narrative data comprises analyzing linguistic relationships between words in at least a portion of the narrative.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein in at least one of extracting problem data and extracting solution data from the narrative data comprises analysis of statistical occurrence of specific words in at least a portion of the narrative.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising searching the database for populated problem data, and retrieving the related populated solution data.

7. An aircraft service information handling system, comprising:

an input module configured to collect unstructured field service narrative data utilizing self-training natural language processing algorithms;

a self-training natural language data extraction module configured to extract problem data and related solution data from the narrative data, such that a text representation of the narrative data is processed by machine to distinguish and parse at least one problem data and solution data from the narrative; and

a database module configured to populate an aircraft service information database with the extracted problem data and the related extracted solution data.

8. The aircraft service information handling system of claim 7, wherein the input module is configured to collect field service narrative data by at least one of performing voice recognition on a spoken narrative, and scanning a written narrative and converting it to a machine-readable form.

9. The aircraft service information handling system of claim 7, wherein the natural language data extraction module is configured to analyze linguistic relationships between words in at least a portion of the narrative.

10. The aircraft service information handling system of claim 7, wherein the natural language data extraction module is configured to analyze statistical occurrence of specific words in at least a portion of the narrative.

11. The aircraft service information handling system of claim 7, wherein the database module is further configured to search the database for populated problem data, and retrieving the related populated solution data.

12. A machine-readable medium with instructions stored thereon, the instructions when executed cause a computerized system to:

collect unstructured field service narrative data utilizing self-trainable natural language processing algorithms;

perform a lexical analysis on the collected field service narrative data identifying the lexical class of each of a plurality of parts of speech existing therein;

extract problem data from the narrative data based at least in part on the lexical analysis;

extract solution data from the narrative data, wherein at least one of extracting problem data and extracting solution data is performed on the narrative data automatically by machine, such that a text representation of the narrative data is processed by machine to distinguish and parse at least one problem data and solution data from the narrative; and

populate an aircraft service information database with the extracted problem data and the related extracted solution data.

13. The machine-readable medium of claim 12, wherein collecting field service narrative data comprises performing voice recognition on a spoken narrative.

14. The machine-readable medium of claim 12, wherein populating an aircraft service information database comprises storing extracted problem data and related extracted solution data.

15. The machine-readable medium of claim 12, wherein in at least one of extracting problem data and extracting solution data from the narrative data comprises analyzing linguistic relationships between words in at least a portion of the narrative.

16. The machine-readable medium of claim 12, wherein in at least one of extracting problem data and extracting solution data from the narrative data comprises analysis of statistical occurrence of specific words in at least a portion of the narrative.

17. The machine-readable medium of claim 12, the instructions when executed further operable to cause the computerized system to search the database for populated problem data, and retrieving the related populated solution data.