Centralized maintenance device for aircraft

• US 9,650,158 B2
• Filed: 12/13/2011
• Issued: 05/16/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Thales SA
• Original Assignee: Thales SA
• Inventors: Albouy, Christian, Chazottes, Xavier
• Primary Examiner(s): TRAN, KHOI H
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen, Robert
• Application Number:
  US13/997,163
• Publication Number:
  US 20130274994A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,981 Days
• Field of Search: 701 334
• 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: G05B 23/0272 Presentation of monitored results, e.g. selection of status reports to be displayed; Filtering information to the user
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0739 in a data processing system embedded in automotive or aircraft systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0784 Routing of error reports, e.g. with a specific transmission path or data flow

Abstract

A centralized maintenance device installed on-board an aircraft notably carries out the following functions: correlation of data relating to failures, warnings, configurations, operational contexts, flags and the logbook, received by the on-board maintenance system; storage of the data received by the on-board maintenance system in a first database; management of a historical record of the data received and of their correlation; transmission to a man-machine interface of the data received, of their correlation and of a date associated with each item of data; display of the received data, their correlation and the date associated with each item of data, by a man-machine interface of the on-board maintenance system.

Claims

1. A centralized maintenance device installed on-board an aircraft, comprising:

an on-board maintenance system being connected to systems of the aircraft, a warning system of the aircraft, and a logbook, the on-board maintenance system configured to receive data relating to;

failures originating from the systems of the aircraft;

warnings coming from the warning system of the aircraft;

configurations of the systems of the aircraft;

operational contexts of functioning of the systems of the aircraft that comprise physical parameters of the aircraft varying over a course of time;

event flags, set by a crew of the aircraft; and

a logbook, filled in by the crew of the aircraft;

the on-board maintenance system further configured to generate a correlation of data, the correlation of data correlates data relating to the failures, the warnings, the configurations, the operational contexts, the flags and the logbook, received by the on-board maintenance system that are related;

the on-board maintenance system further configured to store the data received by the on-board maintenance system in a first database;

the on-board maintenance system further configured to carry out a management of a historical record of the data received and of their correlation;

the on-board maintenance system further configured to carry out a transmission to a man-machine interface of the data received, of their correlation and of a date associated with each item of data received; and

the on-board maintenance system further configured to carry out a display by the man-machine interface of a hierarchized list of data according to a date associated with each item of data, a flight identifier associated with the list of data, a time associated with each item of data, and a flight phase associated with each item of data.

2. The device according to claim 1, further comprising a second database,

wherein the on-board maintenance system is further configured to generate the correlation of the data according to rules and criteria defined in the second database.

3. The device according claim 1, wherein the configuration data received by the on-board maintenance device comprise:

a list of the systems of the aircraft and a historical record of updates of the systems of the aircraft.

4. The device according to claim 1, wherein the operational context data comprise the physical parameters of the aircraft varying over the course of time and comprise at least one of:

geographical coordinates, altitudes, speeds, mass, aerodynamic configuration, quantity of fuel on-board, operational state of the on-board items of equipment, meteorological conditions.

5. The device according to claim 1, further comprising a second man-machine interface presenting maintenance data based on the correlated data generated by the on-board maintenance system.

6. The device according to claim 5, wherein the second man-machine interface is configured to provide an interface configured to receive a request for a search for a particular failure or for a particular item of data.

7. The device according to claim 5, wherein the second man-machine interface is configured to provide an interface configured to receive a selection of data associated with a particular flight from among the maintenance data.

8. The device according to claim 5, wherein the second man-machine interface is configured to provide an interface configured to allow an operator to request a recording of the maintenance data.

9. The device according to claim 5, wherein the second man-machine interface is configured to provide an interface to receive a request to reset a historical record;

and wherein the on-board maintenance device is configured to reset the historical record in response to the request.

10. A centralized maintenance device installed on-board an aircraft, comprising:

a man-machine interface;

a first database;

an on-board maintenance system being connected to systems of the aircraft, a warning system of the aircraft, and a logbook, the on-board maintenance system configured to receive data relating to;

failures originating from the systems of the aircraft;

warnings coming from the warning system of the aircraft;

configurations of the systems of the aircraft;

operational contexts of functioning of the systems of the aircraft that comprise physical parameters of the aircraft varying over a course of time;

event flags, set by a crew of the aircraft; and

a logbook, filled in by the crew of the aircraft;

the on-board maintenance system further configured to generate a correlation of data, the correlation of data correlates data relating to the failures, the warnings, the configurations, the operational contexts, the flags and the logbook, received by the on-board maintenance system that are related;

the first database configured to store the data received by the on-board maintenance system;

the on-board maintenance system further configured to generate a historical record of the data received and of their correlation;

the on-board maintenance system further configured to transmit to the man-machine interface the data received, the correlation of the data received, and of a date associated with each item of the data received; and

the man machine interface being configured to display the received data, the correlation of the received data, and the date associated with each item of data,

wherein the man-machine interface is further configured to display a hierarchized list of data according to a date associated with each item of data, a flight identifier associated with the list of data, a time associated with each item of data, and a flight phase associated with each item of data.

11. The device according to claim 10, further comprising a second database,

wherein the on-board maintenance system is further configured to generate the correlation of the data according to rules and criteria defined in the second database.

12. The device according claim 10, wherein the configuration data received by the on-board maintenance device comprise:

a list of the systems of the aircraft and a historical record of updates of the systems of the aircraft.

13. The device according to claim 10, wherein the operational context data comprise the physical parameters of the aircraft varying over the course of time and comprise at least one of:

geographical coordinates, altitudes, speeds, mass, aerodynamic configuration, quantity of fuel on-board, operational state of the on-board items of equipment, meteorological conditions.

14. The device according to claim 10, further comprising a second man-machine interface presenting maintenance data based on the correlated data generated by the on-board maintenance system.

15. The device according to claim 14, wherein the second man-machine interface is configured to provide an interface configured to receive a request for a search for a particular failure or for a particular item of data.

16. The device according to claim 14, wherein the second man-machine interface is configured to provide an interface configured to receive a selection of data associated with a particular flight from among the maintenance data.

17. The device according to claim 14, wherein the second man-machine interface is configured to provide an interface configured to allow an operator to request a recording of the maintenance data.

18. The device according to claim 14, wherein the second man-machine interface is configured to provide an interface to receive a request to reset a historical record;

and wherein the on-board maintenance device is configured to reset the historical record in response to the request.

19. A centralized maintenance device installed on-board an aircraft, comprising:

a man-machine interface;

a first database;

a second database;

an on-board maintenance system being connected to systems of the aircraft, a warning system of the aircraft, and a logbook, the on-board maintenance system configured to receive data relating to;

failures originating from the systems of the aircraft;

warnings coming from the warning system of the aircraft;

configurations of the systems of the aircraft;

operational contexts of functioning of the systems of the aircraft that comprise physical parameters of the aircraft varying over a course of time;

event flags, set by a crew of the aircraft; and

a logbook, filled in by the crew of the aircraft;

the on-board maintenance system further configured to generate a correlation of data, the correlation of data correlates data relating to the failures, the warnings, the configurations, the operational contexts, the flags and the logbook, received by the on-board maintenance system that are related;

the first database configured to store the data received by the on-board maintenance system;

the on-board maintenance system further configured to generate a historical record of the data received and of their correlation;

the on-board maintenance system further configured to transmit to the man-machine interface the data received, the correlation of the data received, and of a date associated with each item of the data received; and

the man machine interface being configured to display the received data, the correlation of the received data, and the date associated with each item of data,

wherein the man-machine interface is further configured to display a hierarchized list of data according to a date associated with each item of data, a flight identifier associated with the list of data, a time associated with each item of data, and a flight phase associated with each item of data;

wherein the on-board maintenance system is further configured to generate the correlation of the data according to rules and criteria defined in the second database; and

wherein the configuration data received by the on-board maintenance device comprise;

a list of the systems of the aircraft and a historical record of updates of the systems of the aircraft.