System and method for collecting defect data of components in a passenger cabin of a vehicle

• US 8,700,253 B2
• Filed: 08/25/2011
• Issued: 04/15/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/25/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Airbus Operations GmbH (Airbus SE)
• Original Assignee: Airbus Operations GmbH (Airbus SE)
• Inventors: Fischer, Daniel
• Primary Examiner(s): Shafi, Muhammad
• Assistant Examiner(s): Malhotra, Sanjeev
• Application Number:
  US13/218,254
• Publication Number:
  US 20120053779A1
• Time in Patent Office: 964 Days
• Field of Search: 700/283, 705/14.38, 707/758, 714/31, 714/49, 725/105, 414/627, 365/189.16, 365/201, 477/97, 606/41, 348/143, 52/7, 370/242, 455/456.2, 379/219, 345/55, 342/357.3, 340/8.1
• US Class Current: 701/29.6
• CPC Class Codes: B64F 5/60 Testing or inspecting aircraft components or systems
• 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 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/026 using orientation information, e.g. compass
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/42 for mass transport vehicles, e.g. buses, trains or aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/48 for in-vehicle communication

Abstract

A system is provided for collecting defect data of components in a passenger cabin of a vehicle that includes, but is not limited to a component identification device for identifying an affected component, and a malfunction selection device, connected to the component identification device, for selecting a malfunction of the identified component from a predefined quantity of component-specific malfunctions. The system includes, but is not limited to a locating device for acquiring a position of the affected component in the passenger cabin, with the aforesaid being connected to the component identification device. In this manner, by means of devices that are very simple to use, imprecise positioning information, component information and malfunction information can be avoided.

Claims

1. A system for collecting defect data of components in a passenger cabin of a vehicle, comprising:

a component identification device configured to identify an affected component in the passenger cabin;

a malfunction selection device connected to the component identification device, the malfunction selection device configured to select a malfunction of the affected component from a predefined quantity of component-specific malfunctions in a malfunction database; and

a locating device configured to acquire a three-dimensional position of the affected component in the passenger cabin with the locating device connected to the component identification device,

wherein the component identification device identifies the affected component from a component database based on the three-dimensional position acquired by the locating device, and the component identification device, the malfunction selection device, the component database and the malfunction database are at least partially software applications installed on the mobile electronics device and communicate with the locating device.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a pointing device configured to mark a respective component for the locating device.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the component identification device is configured with the position of the affected component from the component database comprising component identification data and positioning data of components to filter a component group comprising a component of the passenger cabin for a selection dialog with the aforesaid located in close proximity to the position of the affected component.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the malfunction selection device is configured to filter possible malfunctions that relate to a selected component from the malfunction database comprising a predefined quantity of possible malfunctions for the selection dialog.

5. The system of claim 4, further comprising an electronics device that is connected to the component identification device and to the malfunction selection device and that comprises a display unit and an input unit configured to provide the selection dialog that can be operated with the input unit.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the electronics device is configured to transmit the component identification data and malfunction data of the selected component to a storage unit.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the electronics device comprises a pointing device that is configured to spatially mark the affected component.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein the electronics device further comprises a transponder-reading device configured to read from transponders of components.

9. The system of claim 5, wherein the electronics device is a mobile electronics device and comprises a data connection device for communicating with the locating device.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the mobile electronics device is configured to communicate with an externally provided component identification device configured to process selection dialogs.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the mobile electronics device is configured to communicate with the malfunction selection device that is configured to process selection dialogs.

12. The system of claim 2, wherein the pointing device is a visual pointing device that comprises a distance meter configured to determining a distance between the pointing device and the respective component and a position sensor configured to acquire a spatial orientation of the pointing device.