MAINTENANCE SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR USE IN ANALYZING MAINTENANCE DATA

• US 20150039177A1
• Filed: 08/05/2013
• Published: 02/05/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/05/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Original Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Inventors: Lake, Peter J., McCullough, Jay Kevin, Chapman, Steven David
• Granted Patent: US 9,396,592 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/31.6
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0808 Diagnosing performance data testing of vehicles G01M17/00; testing of electrical installation on vehicles G01R31/005
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/085 using electronic data carriers

Abstract

Methods and maintenance systems for use in analyzing data related to maintenance of at least one vehicle are disclosed. One example method includes retrieving, by a computing device, a plurality of diagnostic entries associated with at least one fault message from a database of diagnostic entries, each diagnostic entry including an identified corrective action and a date on which the identified corrective action was taken; identifying a plurality of groups of diagnostic entries, wherein the diagnostic entries in a group have a same corrective action, and each group has a confidence level associated with its corrective action; and weighting the confidence level for each group based on an age of the plurality of diagnostic entries in the group.

Claims

1. A method for use in analyzing data related to maintenance of at least one vehicle, said method comprising:

retrieving, by a computing device, a plurality of diagnostic entries associated with at least one fault message from a database of diagnostic entries, each diagnostic entry including an identified corrective action and a date on which the identified corrective action was taken;

identifying a plurality of groups of diagnostic entries, wherein the diagnostic entries in a group have a same corrective action; and

weighting a confidence level associated with the corrective action of at least one group based on an age of the plurality of diagnostic entries in the group.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein weighting the confidence level comprises weighting the confidence level of at least one group based on the age of the diagnostic entries in the group.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein weighting the confidence comprises weighting the confidence level of at least one group based on an average age of the plurality of diagnostic entries in the group.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein weighting the confidence level of at least one group based on an average age of the plurality of diagnostic entries in the group comprises weighting the confidence level for the at least one group based on an average age of the plurality of diagnostic entries in the group using a Gaussian function.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein weighting the confidence level of the at least one group based on an average age of the plurality of diagnostic entries in the group using a Gaussian function comprises weighting the confidence level of the at least one group based on an average age of the plurality of diagnostic entries in the group to produce a weighted confidence level by multiplying the confidence level for the group by a weighting factor determined for that group by

6. The method of claim 5, wherein “

a”

has a value of 1 and “

b”

has a value of 0.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein “

c”

has a value of about 4.25.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a confidence indicator for each group as a product of the weighted confidence level for the group and a number of diagnostic entries in the group.

9. A maintenance system for use in analyzing data related to maintenance of at least one vehicle, said maintenance system comprising:

a memory device storing a plurality of diagnostic entries, each diagnostic entry including at least one fault message, an identified corrective action, and a date; and

a processor coupled to said memory device, said processor configured to;

identify a plurality of groups of diagnostic entries from the plurality of diagnostic entries, wherein the diagnostic entries in a group have a same corrective action; and

determine a plurality of weighting factors for the groups based on an age of the diagnostic entries in the groups.

10. The maintenance system of claim 9, wherein said processor is further configured to apply the weighting factor for the at least one group to a confidence level associated with the corrective action of the group to determine a weighted confidence level.

11. The maintenance system of claim 10, wherein said processor is configured to determine the weighting factor for the at least one group based on an average age of the diagnostic entries in the group.

12. The maintenance system of claim 11, wherein said processor is configured to determine the weighting factor for the at least one group based on an average age of the diagnostic entries in the group using a Gaussian function.

13. The maintenance system of claim 12, wherein said processor is configured to determine the weighting factor for the at least one group by

14. The maintenance system of claim 9, wherein the vehicle is an aircraft.

15. The maintenance system of claim 10, further comprising determining a confidence indicator for the at least one group as a product of the weighted confidence level for the group and a number of diagnostic entries in the group.

16. One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon, wherein when executed by at least one processor, the computer-executable instructions cause the processor to:

identify a plurality of groups of diagnostic entries from a plurality of diagnostic entries, wherein each diagnostic entry includes at least one fault message, an identified corrective action, and a date, and wherein the diagnostic entries in a group have a same corrective action; and

determine a weighting factor for each group based on an age of the plurality of diagnostic entries in the group.

17. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 16, wherein when executed by the at least one processor, the computer-executable instructions further cause the processor to determine a confidence level associated with the corrective action of each group of diagnostic entries, and apply the weighting factor for each group to its determined confidence level.

18. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 17, wherein when executed by the at least one processor, the computer-executable instructions further cause the processor to determine the weighting factor for each group based on an average age of the plurality of diagnostic entries in the group.

19. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 18, wherein when executed by the at least one processor, the computer-executable instructions further cause the processor to determine the weighting factor for each group based on an average age of the plurality of diagnostic entries in the group using a Gaussian function.

20. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 16, wherein when executed by the at least one processor, the computer-executable instructions further cause the processor to determine the weighting factor for each group by