System and method to assess and report a health of a tire

• US 8,599,044 B2
• Filed: 08/11/2010
• Issued: 12/03/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/11/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Original Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Inventors: Maggiore, Jeanne C., Followell, David A., Majkowski, Wayne R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Tai T
• Application Number:
  US12/854,646
• Publication Number:
  US 20120038492A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,210 Days
• Field of Search: 340/945, 340/438, 340442-447, 340/505, 731/46, 731/462, 731/465
• US Class Current: 340/945
• CPC Class Codes: B60C 2200/02 for aircrafts
• CPC Class Codes: B60C 23/0479 Communicating with external units being not part of the vehicle, e.g. tools for diagnostic, mobile phones, electronic keys or service stations
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/085 using electronic data carriers

Abstract

The different advantageous embodiments provide an apparatus comprising a number of tires for a vehicle, a number of systems, and a number of processor units. The number of systems is configured to generate data about the number of tires and the vehicle. The number of processor units is configured to monitor the data and manage the health of the number of tires.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a number of tires on an aircraft, the aircraft including landing gear;

a number of systems configured to generate data about the number of tires and the aircraft, the number of systems including a tire monitor configured to assess, and report on a health and status of the number of tires, including at least pressure and temperature;

an onboard processor unit configured to monitor the data for a first threshold, including information from the tire monitor, and manage health of the number of tires while the landing gear is deployed;

a communications unit configured to transmit the information including the health and status of the number of tires; and

an off board processor configured to receive the information including the health and status of the number of tires, and wherein the off board processor monitors the data for a second threshold, manages health of the number of tires, and plans maintenance tasks for the number of tires.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:

a user interface, wherein the off board processor provides information to the user interface to display the information about the number of tires.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the off board processor comprises a tire monitor and a planner, the tire monitor is further configured to identify a number of status messages or a number of issues associated with the number of tires, and the planner is configured to plan maintenance tasks for the number of tires.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the on board processor unit continually transmit information about the health and status of the number of tires to the off board processor at a remote location for real-time monitoring of tire health.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the number of systems includes a sensor system configured to communicate with the off board processor unit, the sensor system comprising at least a pressure monitor, a temperature monitor, a wear sensor, and a camera.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the sensor system includes a pressure transducer to detect pressure in the number of tires and a thermal sensor to detect temperature in the number of tires, a rotation counter, an identification reader, and at least one of an accelerometer, infrared sensor, lidar, laser, identification tagging component, and acoustic sensor.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the tire monitor further comprises a wear sensor configured to detect tire wear.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the off board processor is configured to track pressure and temperature information for a tire by tire serial number.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the communications unit is triggered to transmit the information to the off board processer by one of landing gear retraction, landing gear extension, or a time from landing gear retraction or landing gear extension.

10. A method for managing health of a number of tires on an aircraft having landing gear, the method comprising:

sensing information, including at least temperature and pressure, for the number of tires;

processing the information in an onboard processor;

triggering a transmitting of the information by one of landing gear extension, landing gear retraction, or a time from landing gear extension or landing gear retraction;

receiving data from a number of systems associated with the number of tires at an off board processor;

determining whether the data received meets pre-defined criteria; and

responsive to a determination that the data does not meet the pre-defined criteria, identifying a number of component issues associated with the data.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the number of systems includes a vehicle control system, and wherein the data includes a vehicle speed, attitude, and control inputs.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the number of systems includes a sensor system, and wherein the data is sensor data from a number of sensors configured to detect health and status information about a number of tires.

13. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

planning maintenance tasks for the number of tires based on the temperature and pressure information;

generating an alert with at least one of the number of component issues identified, informational messages, and parametric data; and

displaying the alert on a user interface.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the alert is a status message associated with the number of tires.

15. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

storing information about the alert and the data in a number of storage devices.

16. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

responsive to a determination that the data meets the pre-defined criteria, determining whether the data is needed for status or other applications.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising:

responsive to a determination that the data is needed for the status or the other applications, generating a status message; and

displaying the status message on a user interface.

18. The method of claim 16 further comprising:

responsive to a determination that the data is needed for the status or the other applications, storing information; and

displaying the status message on a user interface.

19. The method of claim 10, wherein the number of systems include a tire monitor, a sensor system, and other aircraft systems.

20. The method of claim 10, wherein sensing information further comprises sensing tire wear.

21. The method of claim 20 further comprising tracking data for a tire serial number.

22. The method of claim 20 further comprising formatting the information and processing the information by a number of algorithms after formatting.