Aircraft part control system

• US 8,791,823 B2
• Filed: 06/03/2011
• Issued: 07/29/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/03/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Original Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Inventors: Xu, Alekzander Hao, Li, Winfeng, Ayyagari, Arun, Kumar, Anil, Blackwell, David B., Ung, Kevin Yong
• Primary Examiner(s): MULLEN, THOMAS J
• Application Number:
  US13/152,806
• Publication Number:
  US 20120306666A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,152 Days
• Field of Search: 340/572.1, 340/10.1, 340/5.92, 340/691.6, 705/28, 705/305, 700/213, 700/215
• US Class Current: 340/572.1
• CPC Class Codes: B64F 5/60 Testing or inspecting aircraft components or systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders

Abstract

A method and apparatus for managing parts. Location information is displayed for a part on an aircraft on a mobile device. A determination is made as to whether the part is present in a location using a sensor system in the mobile device when the mobile device is in a zone including the location. A presence of the part in the location is indicated in response to the part being present in the location.

Claims

1. A method for managing parts, the method comprising:

displaying location information for a part on an aircraft on a mobile device;

determining whether the part is present in a location using a sensor system in the mobile device when the mobile device is in a zone including the location, the sensor system comprising a radio frequency identifier reader and a second type of sensor, the determining comprising;

obtaining information from a radio frequency identifier tag;

determining whether the information is for the part; and

performing a further confirmation for presence of the part in the location using the second type of sensor; and

responsive to the part being present in the location, indicating a presence of the part in the location.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

responsive to the part being absent from the location, indicating an absence of the part in the location.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying the location information for the part on the aircraft comprises:

displaying a diagram identifying a zone in the aircraft in which the part is located.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein displaying the location information for the part on the aircraft further comprises:

displaying a location of the mobile device relative to the part in the aircraft.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein displaying the location information for the part on the aircraft further comprises:

displaying at least one image of the zone.

6. The method claim 5, wherein the image of the zone is displayed when the mobile device is located in the zone.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein displaying the at least one image of the zone comprises:

displaying at least one of a still image of the zone and at least one image of a plurality of images for a video of the zone with a visual identifier identifying the part in the at least one of the still image and the at least one image for the video.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining the information from the tag comprises:

positioning the mobile device relative to the location such that the information is obtained from the tag in the location.

9. An apparatus comprising:

a mobile device configured to display location information for a part on an aircraft on the mobile device;

determine whether the part is present in a location using a sensor system in the mobile device when the mobile device is in a zone including the location, the sensor system comprising a radio frequency identifier reader and a second type of sensor, the determining comprising obtaining information from a radio frequency identifier tag, determining whether the information is for the part, and performing a further confirmation for presence of the part in the location using the second type of sensor; and

indicate a presence of the part in the location in response to the part being present in the location.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the mobile device is configured to be responsive to the part being absent from the location.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein in being configured to display the location information for the part on the aircraft, the mobile device is configured to display a diagram identifying a zone in the aircraft in which the part is located.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein in being configured to display the location information for the part on the aircraft, the mobile device is further configured to display a location of the mobile device relative to the part in the aircraft.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein in being configured to display the location information for the part on the aircraft, the mobile device is further configured to display at least one image of the zone.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the image of the zone is displayed when the mobile device is located in the zone.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein in being configured to display the at least one image of the zone, the mobile device is configured to display at least one of a still image of the zone and at least one image of a plurality of images for a video of the zone with a visual identifier identifying the part in the at least one of the still image and the at least one image for the video.

16. The apparatus of claim 9 further comprising:

a computer system, wherein the computer system is configured to identify a number of parts to be located, create a list of the number of parts, identify location information and identification information for the number of parts, and send the list of the number of parts, the location information for the number of parts, and the identification information for the number of parts to the mobile device.