Vehicle monitoring system

• US 8,682,509 B2
• Filed: 02/15/2008
• Issued: 03/25/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/16/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Original Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Inventors: Goodrich, Jeffrey A., Luppold, Robert H., Brotherton, Tom, Grabill, Paul
• Primary Examiner(s): To, Tuan C.
• Application Number:
  US12/526,431
• Publication Number:
  US 20110054721A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,230 Days
• Field of Search: 701/14, 703/6, 340/10.1
• US Class Current: 701/14
• 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: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C

Abstract

A system to monitor aircraft equipment, having a chassis, defining an interior compartment, an arrangement configured to accept input data of at least one aircraft parameter, the arrangement configured to be placed within an aircraft, crash survivable cockpit voice and flight data recorder, and a power supply arrangement connected to arrangement configured to accept input data and the recorder.

Claims

1. A system to monitor vehicle and aircraft equipment, comprising:

a chassis, defining an interior compartment;

an arrangement configured to accept input data of at least one of a vehicle and aircraft parameter, the arrangement configured to be placed within at least one of a vehicle and aircraft;

a processing and acquisition system containing a high density Field Programmable Gate Array onboard the aircraft, the high density Field Programmable Gate Array comprising a plurality of reconfigurable processors configured to provide for partitioning of multiple levels of certified software;

a power supply arrangement connected to arrangement configured to accept and record input data;

an accelerometer unit;

a tachometer unit;

a plurality of blade trackers; and

an input/output unit;

wherein the high density FPGA interfaces with each of the accelerometer unit, the tachometer unit, the plurality of blade trackers; and

the input/output unit; and

wherein the system comprises a health and usage monitoring system (HUMS).

2. The system according to claim 1, further comprising:

an arrangement to download the input data to a flight data monitoring program.

3. The system according to claim 2, wherein the flight data monitoring program is configured to access, analyze and act on data of the at least one aircraft parameter.

4. The system according to claim 1, further comprising:

an arrangement to download the engine data to an engine monitoring program.

5. The system according to claim 4, wherein the engine data monitoring program is configured to access, analyze and act on data of the at least one engine parameter.

6. The system according to claim 1, further comprising:

an arrangement to download the input data to a vehicle monitoring program.

7. he system according to claim 6, wherein the engine data monitoring program is configured to access, analyze and act on data of the at least one vehicle parameter.

8. The system according to claim 1, further comprising:

at least one vibration monitoring system connected to at least one of a mechanical component.

9. The system according to claim 1, further comprising:

at least one aircraft and vehicle SAE standard military and / or commercial buss digital data.

10. The system according to claim 9, wherein the system is configured to calculate at least one of engine operating regime, engine component performance and engine power assurance.

11. The system according to claim 1, wherein the system is configured with device drivers and software to interface with a FPGA based Digital Signal Processor.

12. The system according to claim 11, wherein the system is configured to process at least one of Fast Fourier Transforms, Discrete Fourier Transforms, Re-sampling time samples and Synchronous Order Domain Transforms.

13. The system according to claim 1, further comprising:

an integral crash survivable cockpit voice and flight data recorder.

14. The system according to claim 1, wherein the system includes an integral inertial measurement system consisting of Micro Electro Mechanical (MEM) acceleration, rate and magnetometer sensors and a Global Positioning System (GPS).

15. The system according to claim 14, wherein the system is configured to measure at least one of a vehicle and aircraft'"'"'s location, speed and attitude information.

16. The system according to claim 15, wherein the system is configured to calculate one of location, speed and attitude information when GPS data is unavailable.

17. The system according to claim 14, wherein the system is configured to measure and record vehicle operating condition or aircraft flight regime.

18. The system according to claim 1, wherein the system is configured to use aircraft flight regimes for the purposes of determining a components useful remaining life.

19. The system according to claim 1, wherein the system is configured to use engine operation regimes to determine engine components useful remaining life.

20. The system according to claim 1, wherein system input/output and processing are configured to be modified through reprogramming of the FPGA hardware functions through software updates.

21. The system according to claim 20, wherein FPGA modifications can isolate input/output and processing functions for the purposes higher level aircraft certification.

22. The system according to claim 1, further comprising:

an arrangement wherein the stored raw and processed data is transmitted to a ground station using wireless communication.

23. The system according to claim 22, wherein an operating condition of the aircraft and engine components are determined so that the store raw and processed data is only transmitted when the aircraft is on the ground.

24. The system according to claim 1, wherein the system is configured to withstand at least one of temperature, altitude, crash hazard shock, vibration, explosive atmosphere, low pressure, high temperature storage, low temperature storage, temperature shock, humidity, rain, fungus, salt fog, dust, sand, functional shock, bench handling shock and gunfire vibration.

25. The system according to claim 17, wherein the circuit card is configured to perform at least one of Rotor Track and Balance, Drive Train Vibration Monitoring, Flight Operations Quality Assurance (FOQA), Helicopter Operational Monitoring Program (HOMP), Engine Health and Usage Monitoring, Engine Performance Assessment, Engine Power Assurance, Exceedance Monitoring and Regime Recognition.

26. The system according to claim 1, further comprising:

at least one Ethernet connection used to interface external aircraft systems.

27. A system to monitor an aircraft, comprising:

a chassis with an interior arrangement, the interior arrangement comprising at least one processor and acquisition card, Power Supply/IO Circuit Card, Card, and a inertial measurement card;

a high density Field Programmable Gate Array onboard the aircraft that is coupled to one or more components of the chassis, the high density Field Programmable Gate Array comprising a plurality of reconfigurable processors configured to provide for partitioning of multiple levels of certified software, wherein the system comprises a health and usage monitoring system (HUMS);

an accelerometer unit;

a tachometer unit;

a plurality of blade trackers; and

an input/output unit;

wherein the high density FPGA interfaces with each of the accelerometer unit, the tachometer unit, the plurality of blade trackers; and

the input/output unit.

28. The system according to claim 27, wherein the system has a fault isolation system arrangement configured to determine correct measurement and operation of one or more external sensors.

29. The system according to claim 28, wherein the fault isolation system arrangement has a built in test arrangement.

30. The system according to claim 28, wherein the interior arrangement is configured to monitor vibrations on the aircraft.

31. The system according to claim 28, further comprising:

a crash survivable cockpit voice and flight data recorder.

32. The system according to claim 28, wherein the system is configured to perform at least one of Engine Performance Monitoring, Engine Power Assurance and Engine Usage Monitoring.

33. The system according to claim 28, wherein the circuit card is configured to perform at track at least one of Rotor Track and Balance, Drive Train Vibration Monitoring, Helicopter Operational Monitoring Program (HOMP), Engine Health and Usage Monitoring, Exceedance Monitoring and Regime Recognition.