System and method to assess and report the health of landing gear related components

• US 8,712,634 B2
• Filed: 08/11/2010
• Issued: 04/29/2014
• 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.
• Primary Examiner(s): Black, Thomas
• Assistant Examiner(s): LOUIE, WAE LENNY
• Application Number:
  US12/854,671
• Publication Number:
  US 20120041639A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,357 Days
• Field of Search: 701/124, 701/29.1, 701/34, 244/100.R, 340/438, 340/945, 340/971
• 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;

a number of processor units, including an onboard processor unit configured to monitor the data and manage health of the number of landing gear components, the onboard processor monitoring the data for a first threshold;

an offboard processor unit configured to receive the data and manage the health of the number of landing gear components based on the data, the offboard processor unit monitoring the data for a second threshold, and planning maintenance for the number of landing gear components based on the data; and

a communications unit configured to transmit the data from the vehicle to the offboard processor unit.

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, the center of gravity determined by calculating a weight on each landing gear of the vehicle.

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 onboard processor unit is further configured to identify a number of status messages or a number of issues associated with the number of landing gear components.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the offboard processor plans maintenance for the number of landing gear components based on the data, the first threshold, and the second threshold.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the offboard processor is configured to present alerts based on the data exceeding either of the first threshold and the second threshold.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the communications unit is triggered to transmit the information to the off board processer by one of landing gear retraction, landing gear extension, or a time from landing gear retraction or landing gear extension.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the number of systems comprises at least an RFID reader, accelerometer, and strain gauge, and further comprising a number of RFID tags associated with the number of landing gear components, the number of RFID tags including configuration information the number of landing gear components, the configuration information comprising a maintenance history for a component in the number of components.

10. The apparatus of claim l further comprising formatting the information and processing the information by a number of algorithms after formatting.

13. 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 at an onboard processor, the number of systems comprising at least an RFID reader, accelerometer, and strain gauge, the RFID reader configured to read a number of RFID tags associated with the number of landing gear components, the number of RFID tags including configuration information for the number of landing gear components, the configuration information comprising a maintenance history for a component in the number of components;

determining in the onboard processor whether the data received is within a first set of pre-defined threshold values;

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;

calculating a number of metrics in the onboard processor including center of gravity and a number of landings remaining for a component in the number of landing gear components;

transmitting the data to an offboard processor remote from the vehicle;

monitoring the data in the offboard processor;

determining in the offboard processor whether the data received is within a second set of pre-defined threshold values, the second set of pre-defined threshold values different than the first set of pre-defined threshold values; and

planning in the offboard processor maintenance for the number of landing gear components based on the data.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the number of systems includes a vehicle control system, and wherein the data includes a vehicle speed, attitude, rates, accelerations and control inputs.

15. The method of claim 13, 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.

16. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

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

displaying the alert on a user interface.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the alert is a status message associated with the number of landing gear components.

18. The method of claim 16 further comprising:

storing information about the alert and the data in a number of storage devices remote from the vehicle; and

planning maintenance for the number of landing gear components based on the data received by the second processor.

19. The method of claim 13, wherein the number of landing gear components are part of an aircraft.

20. 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 a plurality of 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

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

displaying the results and the instructions on where to put the load on a user interface.

21. The method of claim 20, 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.