System and methods for maintaining and operating an aircraft

• US 8,958,945 B2
• Filed: 02/07/2012
• Issued: 02/17/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/07/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GE Aviation Systems LLC (GE Aerospace)
• Original Assignee: GE Aviation Systems LLC (GE Aerospace)
• Inventors: Ovens, Norman Leonard
• Primary Examiner(s): Edwards, Jerrah
• Application Number:
  US13/367,873
• Publication Number:
  US 20130204487A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,106 Days
• Field of Search: 701/33.2, 701/538, 701 3- 18
• US Class Current: 701/33.2
• CPC Class Codes: B64F 5/00 Designing, manufacturing, assembling, cleaning, maintaining or repairing aircraft, not otherwise provided for; Handling, transporting, testing or inspecting aircraft components, not otherwise provided for
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 23/00 Combined instruments indicating more than one navigational value, e.g. for aircraft; Combined measuring devices for measuring two or more variables of movement, e.g. distance, speed or acceleration
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/434 using image data, e.g. images, photos, pictures taken by a user
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/59 inside of a vehicle, e.g. relating to seat occupancy, driver state or inner lighting conditions
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 2201/02 Recognising information on displays, dials, clocks
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 2205/02 using a vehicle scan tool
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0825 using optical means
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A method of providing maintenance to an aircraft having multiple aircraft systems and a method of operating an aircraft having multiple aircraft systems, with at least some of the aircraft systems outputting one or more visual indicia indicative of a status of a system of the aircraft where the method provides information based on such visual indicia. An aircraft system for at least one of operating and maintaining the aircraft, which may retrieve information based on such visual indicia.

Claims

1. An aircraft system for operating or maintaining an aircraft having multiple aircraft systems with at least some of the aircraft systems outputting one or more visual indicia indicative of a corresponding status of one or more of the aircraft systems, the aircraft system comprising:

a database of instructive information indexed according to the visual indicia indicative of the corresponding status of one or more of the aircraft systems;

a handheld device having a display and an imaging system creating an image of the visual indicia; and

a computer program having an executable instruction set to process the image and identify the visual indicia indicative of the corresponding status from the image including an actual system values message, an indication, a mode state, an alphanumeric, or a barcode and retrieve corresponding information from the database for the identified visual indicia indicative of the corresponding status of the one or more of the aircraft systems, and display the retrieved information on the display of the handheld device.

2. The aircraft system of claim 1, further comprising a computer, other than the handheld device, with the database being stored on the computer.

3. The aircraft system of claim 2 wherein the computer is remote from the handheld device and in communication with the handheld device over a communication network.

4. The aircraft system of claim 3 wherein all or part of the computer program may reside on the handheld device, the computer, or on a second computer.

5. The aircraft system of claim 1 wherein the information comprises maintenance information.

6. The aircraft system of claim 5 wherein the maintenance information comprises a diagnostic tree, which is displayed on the display of the handheld device.

7. The aircraft system of claim 5 wherein the maintenance information comprises a repair guide, which is displayed on the display of the handheld device.

8. The aircraft system of claim 1 wherein the handheld device and the aircraft are in data communication.

9. The aircraft system of claim 8 wherein the handheld device comprises a wireless communication system in communication with a wireless communication system of the aircraft to establish the data communication.

10. The aircraft system of claim 1 wherein the visual indicia indicative of a corresponding status of one or more of the aircraft systems comprises an indicia displayed on a display of one of the aircraft systems.

11. The aircraft system of claim 1 wherein a system component, outputting the one or more visual indicia indicative of a corresponding status, is an instrument or an indicator.

12. The aircraft system of claim 11 wherein the system component is identified by shape, physical marking, displayed output, or dynamic barcode.

13. A method of providing maintenance for an aircraft having multiple aircraft systems, with at least some of the aircraft systems outputting one or more visual indicia indicative of a corresponding health condition of one or more of the aircraft systems, the method comprising:

imaging the visual indicia indicative of the corresponding health condition of one or more of the aircraft systems with a handheld device wherein the visual indicia is a read out of an instrument, a position of an instrument, an activation of an indicator, information illustrated on a flight display, or a barcode;

querying a database of maintenance information indexed by the visual indicia for a match to the imaged visual indicia indicative of the corresponding health condition of one or more of the systems; and

displaying on the display of the handheld device the queried maintenance information for the matched visual indicia.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the imaging comprises capturing an image of a user interface of the aircraft system having the visual indicia indicative of the corresponding health condition of one or more of the systems.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the visual indicia indicative of the corresponding health condition of one or more of the systems is displayed on a display of the user interface.

16. The method of claim 14 wherein the visual indicia indicative of the corresponding health condition of one or more of the systems is a light on the user interface.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising identifying the visual indicia indicative of the corresponding health condition of one or more of the systems within the image.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the matching matches the identified visual indicia indicative of the corresponding health condition of one or more of the systems with an index of the visual indicia.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising identifying the aircraft system corresponding to the visual indication from the image.

20. The method of claim 17 wherein the image is at least part of a flight deck for the aircraft.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising identifying all visual indicia indicative of the corresponding health condition of one or more of the systems within the image.

22. The method of claim 13, further comprising transmitting the imaged visual indicia indicative of the corresponding health condition of one or more of the systems to a computer remote of the handheld device and on which the database resides.

23. The method of claim 13 wherein the maintenance information comprises a diagnostic tree on the display of the handheld device.

24. The method of claim 13 wherein the maintenance information comprises a maintenance guide.

25. The method of claim 24 wherein the maintenance guide comprises a replacement guide.

26. A method of operating an aircraft having multiple aircraft systems, with at least some of the aircraft systems outputting one or more visual indicia indicative of a status of one or more of the systems of the aircraft, the method comprising:

imaging the visual indicia indicative of the status of one or more of the systems of the aircraft with a handheld device;

querying a database of operational information indexed by visual indicia for a match to the imaged visual indicia indicative of the status of one or more of the systems and where the visual indicia is an actual system values message, indication, mode state, alphanumeric, or a barcode; and

displaying on the display of the handheld device the queried information for the matched visual indicia.

27. The method of claim 26 wherein the information includes a training aid or reference information for the aircraft.