System aboard an aircraft

• US 8,983,686 B2
• Filed: 05/17/2011
• Issued: 03/17/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/28/2010
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Airbus Operations (European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company EADS NV)
• Original Assignee: Airbus Operations SAS (Airbus SE)
• Inventors: Broquet, Alexandre, Deleris, Yannick, Andre, Raphael, Pascal, Fabien
• Primary Examiner(s): Tarcza, Thomas
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lee, Tyler J
• Application Number:
  US13/109,406
• Publication Number:
  US 20110295448A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,400 Days
• Field of Search: 701/3, 701 8- 18, 701120-122, 714 1-824, 340945-983, 241/75.1, 241/76.R, 241220-237
• US Class Current: 701/14
• 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: G01C 23/005 Flight directors indicating arrangements specially adapted for rotary gyroscopes G01C19/32
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0272 Presentation of monitored results, e.g. selection of status reports to be displayed; Filtering information to the user
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 9/03 with multiple-channel loop, i.e. redundant control systems
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0021 located in the aircraft

Abstract

The invention relates to a device aboard an aircraft comprising output means configured to restore information relating to the aircraft status from aircraft systems, the device including a module providing interface between said output means and said aircraft systems, said module being configured to synthesize information from aircraft systems depending on predetermined behavior rules and to transmit said information thus synthesized to said output means.

Claims

1. A device on-board an aircraft comprising:

processing circuitry including;

an input circuitry portion configured to transmit inputted reconfiguration control data for reconfiguration control of a plurality of different aircraft systems; and

a module providing an interface between said input circuitry portion and the different aircraft systems, said module being configured

to receive reconfiguration control data from said input circuitry portion,

to check the received reconfiguration control data to identify invalid reconfiguration control data,

to remove identified invalid reconfiguration control data from said input circuitry portion,

to synthesize correlated reconfiguration control data having invalid reconfiguration control data removed, based on the reconfiguration control data from said input circuitry portion and depending on predetermined control rules to produce a single synthesized reconfiguration control data signal,

to determine which of the different aircraft systems are operational and which should receive the single synthesized reconfiguration control data signal, and

to transmit the single synthesized reconfiguration control data signal only to the aircraft systems of the different aircraft systems that are determined operational and that should receive the single synthesized reconfiguration control data signal.

2. The device according to claim 1, wherein said module includes:

a quality control unit to control a quality of reconfiguration control data from said input circuitry portion, the quality control including validating the reconfiguration control data,

a processing unit to correlate the reconfiguration control data validated by the quality control unit to infer the reconfiguration control data synthesized using the predetermined control rules, and

a transmitting unit to transmit the single synthesized reconfiguration control data signal only to the aircraft systems that are determined operational and that should receive the single synthesized reconfiguration control data signal to perform control associated with the single synthesized reconfiguration control data signal.

4. The device according to claim 1, wherein said module is configured to control a quality of reconfiguration control data to the operational aircraft systems using a control database.

5. The device according to claim 1, wherein said module is configured to send the single synthesized reconfiguration control data signal to the operational aircraft systems, upon receipt of two or more inconsistent reconfiguration control data inputs at said input circuitry portion, as if only one of the reconfiguration control data inputs was received at said input circuitry portion, based on correlation and prioritization of the two or more inconsistent reconfiguration control data inputs.

9. The device according to claim 1, wherein the reconfiguration control data includes data created based on input to a control system by a crew member of the aircraft responsive to one or more malfunction alerts to reconfigure components and/or members of one or more of the aircraft systems.

3. A device on-board an aircraft comprising:

processing circuitry including;

an input circuitry portion configured to transmit inputted control data to respective different aircraft systems to control the different aircraft systems, and

an output circuitry portion configured to output information relating to an aircraft status based on a plurality of pieces of information from the different aircraft systems; and

a module providing an interface between the different aircraft systems and said input and output circuitry portions,

wherein said module is configured

to receive the plurality of pieces of information from the different aircraft systems,

to check the plurality of pieces of information from the different aircraft systems to identify invalid information,

to remove identified invalid information from the information from the different aircraft systems,

to receive control data from said input circuitry portion,

to check the received control data to identify invalid control data,

to remove identified invalid control data from said input circuitry portion,

to synthesize correlated information having invalid information removed, based on the plurality of pieces of information from the different aircraft systems, depending on predetermined behavior rules, to produce a single piece of synthesized information,

to identify to which of one or more output units of said output circuitry portion the single piece of synthesized information is to be transmitted,

to transmit the single piece of synthesized information only to the identified one or more output units of said output circuitry portion to visually and/or auditorily output the information relating to the aircraft status,

to synthesize correlated control data having invalid control data removed, based on the control data from the input circuitry portion and depending on predetermined control rules to produce a single synthesized reconfiguration control data signal,

to determine which of the different aircraft systems are operational and which should receive the single synthesized reconfiguration control data signal, and

to transmit the single synthesized control data signal only to aircraft systems of the different aircraft systems that are determined operational and that should receive the single synthesized reconfiguration control data signal.

6. The device according to claim 3, wherein the different aircraft systems are parallel systems.

7. The device according to claim 3, wherein the single piece of synthesized information is used by an output device to visually output the information relating to the aircraft status to a pilot of the aircraft.

8. The device according to claim 3, wherein the plurality of pieces of information includes a first piece of information from an electrical system indicating that electrical power is available for a function of an aircraft component, a second piece of information from a pneumatic system indicating that the pneumatic system is available for the function of the aircraft component, and a third piece of information from a fuel system that the fuel system is available for the function of the aircraft component.