System and Method to Assess and Report the Health of Landing Gear Related Components

• US 20120041639A1
• Filed: 08/11/2010
• Published: 02/16/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/11/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Original Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Inventors: Followell, David A., Maggiore, Jeanne C., Majkowski, Wayne R.
• Granted Patent: US 8,712,634 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/34.3
• CPC Class Codes: B60C 2200/02 for aircrafts
• CPC Class Codes: B64D 2045/008 Devices for detecting or indicating hard landing
• CPC Class Codes: B64D 2045/0085 Devices for aircraft health monitoring, e.g. monitoring flutter or vibration
• CPC Class Codes: B64F 5/60 Testing or inspecting aircraft components or systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 23/005 Flight directors indicating arrangements specially adapted for rotary gyroscopes G01C19/32
• CPC Class Codes: G01M 1/125 of aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: G01M 17/04 Suspension or damping

Abstract

The different advantageous embodiments provide an apparatus comprising a number of landing gear components for a vehicle, a number of systems, and a number of processor units. The number of systems is configured to generate data about the number of landing gear components and the vehicle. The number of processor units is configured to monitor the data and manage health of the number of landing gear components.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a number of landing gear components for a vehicle;

a number of systems configured to generate data about the number of landing gear components and the vehicle; and

a number of processor units configured to monitor the data and manage health of the number of landing gear components.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the vehicle is an aircraft.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the number of systems includes a sensor system configured to generate sensor data used by the number of processor units to identify a weight and a center of gravity for the vehicle.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the center of gravity is identified in response to an event.

5. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the center of gravity is identified continuously during a load operation.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:

a user interface, wherein the number of processor units provides information to the user interface to display the information about the number of landing gear components.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the number of processor units is further configured to identify a number of status messages or a number of issues associated with the number of landing gear components.

8. A method for managing health of a number of landing gear components of a vehicle, the method comprising:

receiving data from a number of systems associated with the number of landing gear components and the vehicle;

determining whether the data received is within pre-defined threshold values; and

responsive to a determination that the data is not within the pre-defined threshold values, identifying a number of component issues associated with the data.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the number of systems includes a vehicle control system, and wherein the data includes a vehicle speed, attitude, rates, accelerations and control inputs.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the number of systems includes a sensor system, and wherein the data is sensor data from a number of sensors configured to detect health and status information about the number of landing gear components.

11. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

generating an alert with the number of component issues identified; and

displaying the alert on a user interface.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the alert is a status message associated with the number of landing gear components.

13. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

storing information about the alert and the data in a number of storage devices.

14. The method of claim 8, wherein the number of landing gear components are part of an aircraft.

15. A method for managing a center of gravity for a vehicle during load operations, the method comprising:

detecting initiation of a load operation for the vehicle;

calculating a weight on each landing gear of the vehicle to identify the center of gravity;

actively outputting results having the center of gravity location during the load operation; and

displaying the results on a user interface.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein calculating the weight on the each landing gear of the vehicle to identify the center of gravity includes using an algorithm to operate on the weight calculated for the each landing gear.

17. The method of claim 15 further comprising:

generating instructions on where to put a load being placed on the vehicle using the center of gravity identified; and

displaying the instructions on the user interface.