Remote management of aircraft computer systems

• US 8,509,963 B1
• Filed: 07/23/2009
• Issued: 08/13/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/23/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Collins, Inc. (Raytheon Technologies Corporation d/b/a RTX)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Collins, Inc. (Raytheon Technologies Corporation d/b/a RTX)
• Inventors: Barnes, Geoffrey J., Moore, Richard G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Dager, Jonathan M
• Application Number:
  US12/460,681
• Time in Patent Office: 1,482 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 701/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0739 in a data processing system embedded in automotive or aircraft systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0748 in a remote unit communicating with a single-box computer node experiencing an error/fault remote testing G06F11/2294
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0775 Content or structure details of the error report, e.g. specific table structure, specific error fields
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0781 Error filtering or prioritizing based on a policy defined by the user or on a policy defined by a hardware/software module, e.g. according to a severity level
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3013 where the computing system is an embedded system, i.e. a combination of hardware and software dedicated to perform a certain function in mobile devices, printers, automotive or aircraft systems testing or monitoring of control systems or parts thereof G05B23/02
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3055 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the status of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring if the computing system is on, off, available, not available error or fault processing without redundancy G06F11/0703; error detection or correction by redundancy in data representation G06F11/08; error detection or correction by redundancy in operation G06F11/14; error detection or correction by redundancy in hardware G06F11/16

Abstract

The present invention includes system and methods for managing information systems on an aircraft through the use of a remote management center. At the management center, the status information from aircraft computer systems is monitored for fault conditions. The management center then performs maintenance on the computer system when a fault condition is noticed. Exemplary systems include a remote management center that manages several different computer systems on several different manned aircraft. The management center connects to the aircraft and computer system through data links.

Claims

1. A method of managing information systems on an aircraft, comprising:

monitoring, at a remote management center, status information from a plurality of aircraft computer systems for a plurality of fault conditions;

while inflight, performing maintenance on the aircraft computer system having a fault condition to return the aircraft computer system to a normal condition;

wherein the monitoring step comprises;

receiving the status information from a plurality of aircraft computer systems;

analyzing the received status information to determine whether a normal or fault condition exists for each aircraft computer system; and

updating a maintenance database with information indicating the condition of each of the aircraft computer systems;

wherein the analyzing step comprises;

comparing the received status information to information stored in the maintenance database;

generating a fault condition if the received status information does not match the database information or generating a normal condition if the received status information does match the database information; and

assigning for each fault condition a priority status which indicates what the fault condition is and when in must be corrected;

wherein the performing maintenance step comprises correcting previously identified fault conditions in an order dependent upon said priority status;

wherein the correcting step comprises one of installing, configuring, repairing, removing, replacing, upgrading, otherwise changing software while said aircraft is inflight and where said correcting step is responsive to a highest priority status; and

wherein the aircraft is a manned aircraft and wherein each fault condition generates a lockout status for all correcting steps which have a lower priority status.