Aircraft maintenance data retrieval for portable devices

• US 8,856,134 B2
• Filed: 05/09/2008
• Issued: 10/07/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Original Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Inventors: Hadley, Brent L., Eames, Patrick J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Shmatov, Alexey
• Assistant Examiner(s): CHEUNG, HUBERT G
• Application Number:
  US12/118,037
• Publication Number:
  US 20090281993A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,342 Days
• Field of Search: 707/705
• US Class Current: 707/741
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

In accordance with one or more embodiments, a system for facilitating transfer of data and information over a network includes a database component, a communication component adapted to communicate with a user via a portable communication device over the network, and a processing component adapted to receive a request for data and information from the user via the portable communication device over the network and process the request by accessing one or more documents from the database component related to at least one component of a machine specified by the user passed with the request. The communication component transfers the one or more documents from the database component to the portable communication device for viewing by the user.

Claims

1. A system for retrieving aircraft service information to facilitate custom aircraft repairs, the system comprising:

a database component configured to store aircraft service documents;

a communication component configured to communicate with a user via a portable communication device over a wireless network; and

a processing component configured to respond to a spoken request by way of automatic voice recognition and to a textual request for aircraft maintenance data from the user via the portable communication device over the wireless network and process the spoken request and the textual request by accessing the aircraft service documents from the database component related to at least one component of an aircraft,

wherein the communication component is configured to transfer selected one or more of the accessed aircraft service documents to the portable communication device,

wherein the one or more transferred aircraft service documents are indexed using noun phrase collocation to create custom indices, and

wherein the portable communication device is configured to;

process the spoken request or the textual request from the user to generate one or more search terms, the spoken request or the textual request being related to a custom repair task for the aircraft,

locate one or more sections from the one or more transferred aircraft service documents using the one or more generated search terms and the created custom indices, and

create a custom repair document for the custom repair task using the one or more located sections of the one or more transferred aircraft service documents.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the system comprises a server.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the portable communication device comprises a display component that displays the custom repair document.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the custom repair document is presented on the display component to provide the user with guided interactive inspection of the aircraft or the at least one component of the aircraft to accomplish the custom repair task.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the portable communication device comprises a user input component to receive user input via key entry, voice recognition, and/or graphical interface.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the spoken request or the textual request from the user processed at the portable communication device comprises at least one of a part number, a part description, a keyword, or English language description of an observed fault or condition.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the portable communication device is further configured to receive data input from the user relating to completion of the custom repair task, store the data input in a portable database component, and transfer the data input to the system for storage in the database component.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the data input from the user includes user answers to questions relating to the completion of the custom repair task and one or more recorded results to the questions are stored in the portable database component and transferred to the system for storage in the database component.

9. A method for retrieving aircraft service information to facilitate custom aircraft repairs, the method comprising:

communicating with a user via a portable communication device over a wireless network;

receiving a spoken request by way of automatic voice recognition or a textual request for aircraft maintenance data from the user via the portable communication device over the wireless network;

searching a database component of stored aircraft maintenance manuals and service bulletins to retrieve one or more documents relating to an aircraft responsive to the user'"'"'s request;

transferring the one or more documents from the database component to the portable communication device;

indexing the one or more transferred documents using noun phrase collocation to create custom indices;

processing the spoken request or the textual request from the user received at the portable communication device to generate one or more search terms, the spoken request or the textual request being related to a custom repair task for the aircraft;

locating one or more sections from the one or more transferred documents using the one or more generated search terms and the created custom indices; and

creating a custom repair document for the custom repair task using the one or more located sections of the one or more transferred documents.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein at least part of the method is performed by a server in communication with the portable communication device via the wireless network.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising displaying the custom repair document to the user via a display component of the portable communication device.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising storing the one or more transferred documents.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising providing the user with guided interactive inspection of the aircraft or at least a component of the aircraft.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the spoken request or the textual request processed at the portable communication device comprises at least one of a part number, a part description, a keyword, or English language description of an observed fault or condition.