System and method for fault diagnosis of aircraft

• US 9,469,417 B2
• Filed: 11/10/2014
• Issued: 10/18/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/13/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Flightwatching
• Original Assignee: Flightwatching
• Inventors: Ho Dac, Olivier, Beaujard, Jean-Philippe
• Primary Examiner(s): Trivedi, Atul
• Application Number:
  US14/536,697
• Publication Number:
  US 20150134194A1
• Time in Patent Office: 708 Days
• Field of Search: 701/31.7, 701/33.2
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B64F 5/60 Testing or inspecting aircraft components or systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/20 Administration of product repair or maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/40 Business processes related to the transportation industry shipping G06Q10/083
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0808 Diagnosing performance data testing of vehicles G01M17/00; testing of electrical installation on vehicles G01R31/005

Abstract

An aircraft failure diagnostic method and system includes a group of at least one smart mobile device, mobile in relation to the on-board equipment of an aircraft. The smart mobile device transmits a request for measurement data to an on-board equipment, following a tree structure of measurement data to be acquired. A piece of measurement data received from the on-board equipment by a smart mobile device causes passage to a later step in the tree structure of measurement data requests or interactive maintenance document. The interactive maintenance document is generated by automatically extracting inferences, data to be measured, measurements achievable on the on-board equipment, and measurements requiring a tool not included in the on-board equipment from an aircraft technical documentation.

Claims

1. A method for exchanging data between a first group of at least one on-board equipment of an aircraft configured to supply functioning measurements of at least one aircraft system, and a second group of at least one smart mobile device in communication with and mobile in relation to said at least one on-board equipment, the method implemented as part of an operation of remote maintenance of the aircraft in flight, comprising the steps of:

transmitting at least one request for a measurement data from said at least one smart mobile device to said at least one on-board equipment, following a tree structure of the measurement data to be acquired by said at least one smart mobile device or a supplementary tooling from a set of on-board equipment;

receiving a piece of measurement data in response to said at least one request from said at least one on-board equipment, the piece of measurement data received by said at least one smart mobile device causes a passage to a later step in a tree structure of measurement data requests referred to as an interactive maintenance document;

generating the interactive maintenance document on a basis of an aircraft technical documentation by;

adapting procedures included in the aircraft technical document for the aircraft in flight;

automatically extracting, from the aircraft technical document, inferences, data to be measured, remote measurements and remote actions achievable on said at least one on-board equipment, remote measurements and remote actions requiring a tool not included in said at least one on-board equipment; and

wherein the interactive maintenance document comprises a set of branches, each branch comprising at least one step of acquiring a measurement, whose result is validated positively or negatively to progress to a next step and to obtain a diagnosis of a failure based on the measurements;

identifying a component to be replaced or repaired in accordance with the diagnosis of the failure; and

replacing or repairing the identified component in the aircraft by a technician.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising, for said at least one request for measurement data, the steps of verifying that the piece of measurement data conforms to a predetermined value range;

and messaging a result of the verification on at least one smart mobile device or one external monitoring terminal.

3. The method as claimed in claim 2, further comprising the steps of validating conformance or non-conformance of the piece of measurement data by an operator of said at least one smart mobile device or of an external monitoring terminal;

and generating a conformance report.

4. The method as claimed in claim 3, further comprising the step of passing to a branch of the tree structure of measurement data to be acquired accounting for the conformance or non-conformance of the piece of measurement data.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising the step of accounting for the measurement data acquired by said at least one on-board equipment during at least one flight phase prior to performing an ongoing maintenance operation.

6. The method as claimed in claim 5, further comprising the steps of recording a date of each piece of measurement data acquired from said at least one on-board equipment, said at least one smart mobile device and other measuring tool;

and validating said each piece of measurement data only if said each piece of measurement data is acquired recently within a predetermined temporal proximity value.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising the step of displaying measurements results from all on-board equipment simultaneously on at least one set of smart mobile devices or external monitoring terminals dedicated to an ongoing maintenance operation.

8. The method as claimed in claim 7, further comprising the step of automatically generating a report comprising all measurement steps covered, the measurement data acquired, validation or non-validation decisions for the measurement data acquired, dates of the validation or non-validation decisions, and an identity of a smart mobile device or an external monitoring terminal associated with each validation or non-validation decision.

9. A non-transitory storage medium comprising executable code to exchange data between a smart mobile device and at least one on-board equipment of an aircraft configured to supply functioning measurements of at least one aircraft system, the smart mobile device is in communication with and mobile in relation to said at least one on-board equipment, the code programs the smart mobile device to be configured to perform the following as part of an operation of remote maintenance of the aircraft in flight:

transmit at least one request for a measurement data to said at least one on-board equipment, following a tree structure of the measurement data to be acquired by the smart mobile device or a supplementary tooling from a set of on-board equipment;

receive a piece of measurement data in response to the request from said at least one on-board equipment, the piece of measurement data causes a passage to a later step in a tree structure of measurement data requests referred to as an interactive maintenance document;

generate the interactive maintenance document on a basis of an aircraft technical documentation by;

adapting procedures included in the aircraft technical document for the aircraft in flight;

automatically extracting, from the aircraft technical document, inferences, data to be measured, remote measurements and remote actions achievable on said at least one on-board equipment, remote measurements and remote actions requiring tooling not included in said at least one on-board equipment; and

wherein the interactive maintenance document comprises a set of branches, each branch comprising at least one step of acquiring a measurement, whose result is validated positively or negatively to progress to a next step and to obtain a diagnosis of a failure based on the measurements;

identify a component to be replaced or repaired in accordance with the diagnosis of the failure; and

instruct a technician to replace or repair the identified component in the aircraft.

10. A diagnostic system for aircraft failures, comprising at least one smart mobile device to exchange data with at least one on-board equipment of an aircraft configured to supply functioning measurements of at least one aircraft system, said at least one smart mobile device in communication with and mobile in relation to said at least one on-board equipment;

wherein said at least one smart mobile device performs the following as part of an operation of remote maintenance of the aircraft in flight;

transmits at least one request for a measurement data to said at least one on-board equipment, following a tree structure of the measurement data to be acquired by said at least one smart mobile device or a supplementary tooling from a set of on-board equipment;

receives a piece of measurement data in response to the request from said at least one on-board equipment, the piece of measurement data causes a passage to a later step in a tree structure of measurement data requests referred to as an interactive maintenance document;

generates the interactive maintenance document on a basis of an aircraft technical documentation by;

adapting procedures included in the aircraft technical document for the aircraft in flight;

automatically extracting, from the aircraft technical document, inferences, data to be measured, remote measurements and remote actions achievable on said at least one on-board equipment, remote measurements and remote actions requiring tooling not included in said at least one on-board equipment;

wherein the interactive maintenance document comprises a set of branches, each branch comprising at least one step of acquiring a measurement, whose result is validated positively or negatively to progress to a next step and to obtain a diagnosis of a failure based on the measurements;

identifies a component to be replaced or repaired in accordance with the diagnosis of the failure; and

instructs a technician to replace or repair the identified component in the aircraft.

11. The diagnostic system as claimed in claim 10, wherein, for said at least one request for measurement data, said at least one smart mobile device verifies that the piece of measurement data conforms to a predetermined value range.

12. The diagnostic system as claimed in claim 11, wherein said at least one smart device is configured to generate a conformance report.

13. The diagnostic system as claimed in claim 12, wherein said at least one smart device is configured to pass to a branch of the tree structure of measurement data to be acquired accounting for the conformance or non-conformance of the piece of measurement data.

14. The diagnostic system as claimed in claim 10, wherein said at least one smart device is configured to account for the measurement data acquired by said at least one on-board equipment during at least one flight phase prior to performing an ongoing maintenance operation.

15. The diagnostic system as claimed in claim 14, wherein said at least one smart device is configured to record a date of each piece of measurement data acquired from said at least one on-board equipment and other measuring tool, and configured to validate said each piece of measurement data only if said each piece of measurement data is acquired recently within a predetermined temporal proximity value.

16. The diagnostic system as claimed in claim 10, wherein said at least one smart device is configured to simultaneously display measurements results from all on-board equipment.

17. The diagnostic system as claimed in claim 16, wherein said at least one smart device is configured to automatically generate a report comprising all measurement steps covered, the measurement data acquired, validation or non-validation decisions for the measurement data acquired, and dates of the validation or non-validation decisions.

18. The diagnostic system as claimed in claim 10, wherein said at least one smart device is configured to simultaneously display measurements results from all on-board equipment on external monitoring terminals dedicated to an ongoing maintenance operation.