Vehicle health management systems and methods

• US 8,942,882 B2
• Filed: 06/12/2007
• Issued: 01/27/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/02/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Original Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Inventors: Swearingen, Kevin, Keller, Kirby J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Keith, Jack W
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen, Chuong P
• Application Number:
  US11/761,922
• Publication Number:
  US 20100017049A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,786 Days
• Field of Search: 701/3, 701 8- 10, 701/14, 701/29, 701/30, 701/33, 701/35, 701/36, 340/438, 340/439, 340/500, 340/501, 340/506, 340/517, 340/945, 340/963, 340/971, 244/17.13, 244/75.1, 244/99.2
• US Class Current: 701/29.1
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 16/0232 for measuring vehicle parameters and indicating critical, abnormal or dangerous conditions
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 16/0234 related to maintenance or repairing of vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B64D 2045/0085 Devices for aircraft health monitoring, e.g. monitoring flutter or vibration
• CPC Class Codes: B64D 45/00 Aircraft indicators or protectors not otherwise provided for camouflage F41H3/00
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0816 to ensure stability
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 7/01 Probabilistic graphical models, e.g. probabilistic networks
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0808 Diagnosing performance data testing of vehicles G01M17/00; testing of electrical installation on vehicles G01R31/005
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0816 Indicating performance data, e.g. occurrence of a malfunction
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0841 Registering performance data recording measured values G01D; information storage G11B
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0021 located in the aircraft

Abstract

Systems and methods for managing the exchange of vehicle information between software modules with different safety importance. In one embodiment, a vehicle health management system includes a mission critical software module, a flight critical software module and a gatekeeper. The mission critical software module receives vehicle state information and provides it to the flight critical software module if the gatekeeper confirms the validity of the vehicle information.

Claims

1. A vehicle health management system comprising:

one or more processors;

a mission critical software module executable by at least one processor of the one or more processors, wherein the mission critical software module is configured to receive first vehicle data from a sensor on a vehicle, the mission critical software module comprising;

a risk assessor to determine a risk value associated with the first vehicle data;

a confidence assessor to determine a confidence value associated with whether the first vehicle data matches a validated vehicle state; and

a benefit assessor to determine a benefit value associated with providing the first vehicle data to a flight critical software module; and

the flight critical software module executable by at least one processor of the one or more processors and comprising an evaluator coupled to a filter, wherein the evaluator is configured to receive, from the mission critical software module the risk value, the confidence value, and the benefit value, wherein the evaluator is configured to calculate a health score associated with the first vehicle data based on the risk value, the confidence value, and the benefit value, wherein the evaluator is configured to transfer the first vehicle data to the filter in response to the health score meeting a threshold value, wherein the filter is configured to;

determine whether the first vehicle data is internally consistent,

determine whether the first vehicle data is externally consistent with second vehicle data from the sensor, and

determine whether the first vehicle data is stable over time,

wherein the flight critical software module is configured to provide the first vehicle data to a vehicle flight control system in response to the first vehicle data being internally consistent, externally consistent, and stable over time.

2. The vehicle health management system of claim 1, wherein the risk value includes a first value associated with a risk resulting from an actuator failure.

3. The vehicle health management system of claim 1, wherein the confidence value is determined by comparing a current vehicle state with a tested vehicle state.

4. The vehicle health management system of claim 1, wherein the first vehicle data is high fidelity data from the sensor and wherein the second vehicle data is low fidelity data from the sensor.

5. The vehicle health management system of claim 1, wherein the evaluator is configured to compare the health score with the threshold value.

6. The vehicle health management system of claim 1, wherein the first vehicle data is determined to be internally consistent by the filter when particular data fields of the first vehicle data are populated.

7. The vehicle health management system of claim 1, wherein a vehicle flight control algorithm residing in the vehicle flight control system is modified based on the first vehicle data.

8. A vehicle health management system comprising:

one or more processors;

a mission critical software module executable by at least one processor of the one or more processors to receive vehicle information from a sensor;

a gatekeeper to receive the vehicle information from the mission critical software module and to verify an accuracy of the vehicle information;

a flight critical software module executable by at least one processor of the one or more processors to receive only the vehicle information that has been verified by the gatekeeper, wherein the flight critical software module is configured to filter out a first subset of the vehicle information that is internally inconsistent to generate a data set of filtered vehicle information, wherein the flight critical software module is configured to filter out a second subset of the vehicle information that is externally inconsistent with second vehicle information from the sensor during generation of the data set of filtered vehicle information, or wherein the flight critical software module is configured to filter out a third subset of the vehicle information that is unstable over time during generation of the data set of filtered vehicle information, and wherein the flight critical software module is configured to provide the data set of filtered vehicle information to a vehicle flight control system.

9. The vehicle health management system of claim 8, wherein the flight critical software module has a higher level of validation than the mission critical software module.

10. The vehicle health management system of claim 8, wherein the gatekeeper determines one or more of a risk value, a confidence value, and a benefit value, and wherein the gatekeeper calculates a health score.

11. The vehicle health management system of claim 10, wherein the gatekeeper compares the health score to a threshold value.

12. The vehicle health management system of claim 8, wherein the vehicle information is externally inconsistent when the vehicle information received by the mission critical software module is inconsistent with the second vehicle information received from the sensor by the flight critical software module.

13. The vehicle health management system of claim 8, wherein the flight critical software module verifies vehicle state information by performing a parameter identification test, a neural net correction factor test, or both.