A configurable avionics core maintenance subsystem
The modular design of the aircraft avionics core maintenance subsystem solves the problems of high cross-aircraft adaptation costs and fixed maintenance protocols in existing technologies. It enables universal deployment and flexible maintenance adaptation across multiple aircraft platforms, reduces adaptation costs and debugging difficulty, and meets the needs of the serialization of civil aircraft.
Patent Information
- Authority / Receiving Office
- CN · China
- Patent Type
- Applications(China)
- Current Assignee / Owner
- AVIC SHANGHAI AERONAUTICAL MEASUREMENT CONTROLLING RES INST
- Filing Date
- 2026-04-16
- Publication Date
- 2026-07-31
AI Technical Summary
Existing airborne health management systems cannot be adapted to multiple aircraft platforms, and cross-model adaptation costs are high. They cannot meet the needs of the serialization development of China's civil aircraft. Furthermore, the portable maintenance access terminal has a fixed interaction protocol, which cannot be flexibly adjusted, resulting in high adaptation costs and failing to meet diverse ground maintenance needs.
Design a configurable aircraft avionics core maintenance subsystem, including a health management system, a portable maintenance access terminal, and multiple member systems. It communicates via avionics bus and Ethernet, adopts a modular design, supports ICD file loading and adjustment of interactive formats and bus configuration, uses big-endian mode to transmit multi-byte data, and distinguishes message formats for different maintenance scenarios.
It enables universal deployment across different aircraft platforms, reduces adaptation costs, supports customized maintenance needs for multiple aircraft models, provides flexible maintenance scenario adaptation, reduces the difficulty of hardware platform upgrades and software debugging, and meets diverse ground maintenance needs.
Smart Images
Figure CN122489063A_ABST
Abstract
Description
Technical Field
[0001] This invention relates to the field of avionics systems technology, and in particular to a configurable aircraft avionics core maintenance subsystem. Background Technology
[0002] With the commercial operation of my country's C919 large passenger aircraft and the ongoing development of the C929 wide-body passenger aircraft, independently controllable airborne health management technology has become a core requirement supporting the high-quality development of China's civil aircraft industry. However, current mainstream airborne health management systems suffer from several technical deficiencies, making them ill-suited to the needs of China's serialized civil aircraft development. Existing OHMS systems generally use hard-coded methods to solidify the interaction protocols and avionics bus network configurations with each member system. When the interface control file changes or is adapted to different aircraft models, the core code of OHMS needs to be modified. Each aircraft model corresponds to a customized OHMS, which has extremely poor cross-aircraft reusability. The series adaptation cycle is as long as several months, and the adaptation cost is high. It cannot meet the general deployment requirements of multiple aircraft platforms such as C919 and C929. The existing portable maintenance access terminal (PMAT) and OHMS interaction protocol uses a hard-coded design with a fixed message format, which cannot be flexibly adjusted according to maintenance scenarios. When adding a new maintenance page or customizing maintenance functions, the protocol stacks of OHMS and PMAT need to be modified at the same time, resulting in high adaptation costs and long cycles, which cannot meet the diverse ground maintenance and commissioning needs.
[0003] Currently, mainstream airborne health management technologies for civil aircraft abroad have technical problems, and the cost of licensing and adaptation is extremely high. They also cannot meet the customized maintenance needs of China's civil aircraft. Therefore, it is urgent to develop a core avionics maintenance subsystem that is flexibly configurable, highly versatile, and adaptable to multiple aircraft platforms to support the serialization and independent development of China's civil aircraft industry. Summary of the Invention
[0004] The technical problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide a configurable avionics core maintenance subsystem for aircraft that can effectively achieve high versatility to adapt to customized maintenance needs and is compatible with multiple aircraft platforms.
[0005] The technical solution adopted by this invention to solve its technical problem is: to provide a configurable aircraft avionics core maintenance subsystem, including a health management system, a portable maintenance access terminal, and multiple member systems; wherein, The health management system communicates with various member systems and external devices via the aviation bus to collect flight status data, time data, and member system maintenance data. The health management system communicates with a portable maintenance access terminal via Ethernet to interact with maintenance personnel's maintenance operation requests and the information displayed on the maintenance page.
[0006] Furthermore, the health management system includes a basic communication layer, which comprises a 664 message communication module and an IO management module. The IO management module collects and parses ARINC664 protocol data and distributes data between internal functional modules by calling the ARINC664 board driver read / write interface.
[0007] Furthermore, the health management system includes a data processing layer, which includes a data retrieval configuration parsing module, a data retrieval parsing module, and a database storage module. The data retrieval parsing module formats and parses the bus data based on the parsing target configured by the data retrieval configuration parsing module, and stores the parsed data in the database storage module.
[0008] Furthermore, the health management system includes a business function layer, which includes: The flight status identification module is used to identify the current air-to-ground status, flight segment, flight phase, flight number, and flight identifier of the aircraft, and generate a flight status report. The configuration management module is used to identify the current hardware and software configuration information of member systems based on the maintenance data received from the member systems. The central maintenance module includes several maintenance function modules, which are used to monitor the health status of the aircraft's avionics and mechanical systems, process fault information and parameter data reported by various member systems, detect and locate avionics and mechanical faults, and merge, isolate or record fault data. The integrated fault diagnosis module is used to monitor the fault information of each member system based on the maintenance database, calculate the fault status data according to the fault diagnosis model, and generate and store fault reports. The maintenance and calibration module is used to respond to start test requests, execute start test logic, calculate start test protocol data, and generate start test reports; The maintenance record management module is used to manage maintenance report data; The lifecycle monitoring module is used to monitor the number of power cycles and the number of times the member system has been powered on since production.
[0009] Furthermore, maintenance report data includes fault reports, configuration reports, and flight status reports.
[0010] Furthermore, the health management system also includes an external interaction layer, which includes a TCP data communication module, a terminal interface module, and a maintenance transmission management module. The TCP data communication module is used to send stored formatted data in response to external data requests. The terminal interface module is used to receive maintenance operation events from the portable maintenance access terminal, generate and dispatch maintenance operation requests to the corresponding maintenance function modules. The maintenance transmission management module is used to organize the maintenance display messages generated by the maintenance function modules into maintenance page display information and send it back to the portable maintenance access terminal.
[0011] Furthermore, when the health management system communicates with the portable maintenance access terminal, it uses big-endian mode to transmit multi-byte data.
[0012] Furthermore, when using big-endian mode for transmission, the communication message includes header information, which includes a 2-byte appID and a 2-byte messageID. The messageID is used to distinguish the message format and purpose corresponding to different maintenance scenarios.
[0013] Furthermore, the communication message also includes a 4-byte elapsedTime field and a 4-byte powerCycle field.
[0014] Furthermore, the health management system loads different ICD information files, adjusts the data interaction format with member systems, and configures the aviation bus network.
[0015] Beneficial effects By adopting the above-mentioned technical solution, the present invention has the following advantages and positive effects compared with the prior art: This invention separates the four layers of basic communication, data processing, business functions, and external interaction, so that hardware platform upgrades and the addition of maintenance functions only require adjustments to the code of the corresponding layer or module, without affecting the stability of the core business logic. On the other hand, software debugging and troubleshooting can be located to specific layers or modules, which greatly reduces the technical difficulty of later maintenance, porting, and iteration, and supports the continuous expansion of model functions and the performance upgrade of hardware systems. This invention adjusts the interaction format and bus configuration by loading ICD files, without modifying the OHMS core code. It only needs to load the corresponding ICD configuration file to complete the communication adaptation with the crew systems of different aircraft models. One architecture can cover different series of aircraft such as C919 and C929, as well as the modification needs of the same aircraft model. It avoids the repeated investment of traditional single-aircraft customized development and supports the general deployment requirements of civil aircraft series development. This invention distinguishes message formats for different maintenance scenarios by setting messageID in the header of communication messages. Without modifying the underlying protocol stack of OHMS and PMAT, it can provide maintenance personnel with a convenient human-computer interaction interface for integrated display and centralized control, and meet the flexible adaptation needs of various maintenance information queries and maintenance operation triggers. Attached Figure Description
[0016] Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of the structure of an embodiment of the present invention; Figure 2 This is a schematic diagram of data interaction between modules according to an embodiment of the present invention; Figure 3 This is a schematic diagram of the portable maintenance access terminal structure according to an embodiment of the present invention. Detailed Implementation
[0017] The present invention will be further illustrated below with reference to specific embodiments. It should be understood that these embodiments are for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention. Furthermore, it should be understood that after reading the teachings of this invention, those skilled in the art can make various alterations or modifications to the invention, and these equivalent forms also fall within the scope defined by the appended claims.
[0018] The embodiments of the present invention relate to a core subsystem of an aircraft avionics system, comprising a portable maintenance access terminal (PMAT), a configurable health management system server (OHMS), an information system server simulation software (ISSS), a crew system simulation platform, an information system display terminal, and a cabin management interface subsystem simulation software.
[0019] The configurable Health Management System (OHMS) server collects aircraft flight status data, time data, and crew system maintenance-related data from external simulation equipment via the Aviation Bus Network (AFDX). It also supports interaction with portable maintenance terminals (PMAT) via Ethernet to trigger maintenance operation requests from maintenance personnel. The software executes maintenance task logic, enabling functions such as fault diagnosis and isolation, configuration management, status monitoring, ground maintenance testing, and maintenance recording.
[0020] The OHMS application software runs on the Airborne Health Management Hardware Platform (OHMP). It collects aircraft flight status data, time data, and crew system maintenance-related data from external simulation equipment via the AFDX avionics bus network. It also supports maintenance operation requests triggered by maintenance personnel through Ethernet interaction with portable maintenance terminals (PMAT). The software executes maintenance task logic, implementing functions such as fault diagnosis and isolation, configuration management, status monitoring, ground maintenance and commissioning, and maintenance recording. The software module division and their functional descriptions are as follows: IO Management Module: The IO management module uses the ARINC664 board driver read / write interface to collect and parse ARINC664 protocol data with member systems, and manages the distribution of data among internal functional modules.
[0021] Flight Status Recognition Module: Recognizes the current air-to-ground status, flight segment, flight phase, flight number, flight identifier, and other flight status of the aircraft, and generates a flight status report.
[0022] Configuration Management Module: The aircraft configuration management function mainly identifies the current hardware and software configuration information of the member system.
[0023] Central Maintenance Module: During normal operation, the OMS continuously monitors the health of the aircraft's avionics, connected mechanical systems, and other services through the Central Maintenance Module. By processing member system fault information and parameter data provided to the OMS from the ADN, avionics and mechanical faults can be detected and located. Many member systems provide start-up tests and can provide status reports directly to the OMS. The Central Maintenance Module organizes, merges, isolates, and logs this data according to the maintenance database configuration.
[0024] Comprehensive Fault Diagnosis Module: Based on the maintenance database configuration, monitor the fault information of each member system, calculate the fault status data according to the fault diagnosis model, and generate and store fault reports.
[0025] Maintenance and calibration module: Based on the startup test (IBIT) request, execute the startup test logic, calculate the startup test protocol data, and generate a startup test report.
[0026] Maintenance record management function: Manage the storage, editing, and access of maintenance report data (including fault reports, configuration reports, flight status reports, etc.).
[0027] Lifecycle monitoring function: Periodically monitors the number of power cycles that the member system LRU has experienced since production and the current power-on number.
[0028] ICD configurability: Loadable ICD information describes the data interaction format and AFDX network configuration between the OHMS software and member systems. The software can flexibly send, receive, and parse member system information based on the ICD information and network configuration information.
[0029] Specifically, such as Figure 1As shown, the OHMS system includes a 664 message communication module, a data retrieval and parsing module, a data retrieval configuration parsing module, a TCP data communication module, and an SQLite database storage. The OHMS system collects data from various system terminals via 664 message communication, performs data retrieval and parsing through data retrieval configuration parsing (with customizable parsing targets), and stores the formatted data in the SQLite database for distribution. When external systems request data, it is sent via the TCP communication module.
[0030] like Figure 2 The Information System Server Simulation Software (ISSS) shown can start a UDP server on the local machine to receive maintenance data from member systems such as the information system. The maintenance data is in Ethernet interface format. ISSS integrates algorithms such as endianness conversion, ARINC664 data encoding and decoding, and memory optimization. Parameter import is mainly done through Excel files. ISSS encodes the maintenance data according to the ARINC664 protocol to make the message data conform to the ARINC664 bus protocol. Finally, ISSS sends the encoded data to the AFDX switch to achieve data communication, meeting the functional simulation requirements of the information system server.
[0031] like Figure 3 As shown, the PMAT interface module can generate and dispatch maintenance operation requests to the corresponding maintenance function modules based on maintenance operation events received from the PMAT terminal. The maintenance function modules generate maintenance display messages based on the received maintenance operation requests, which are then organized into corresponding maintenance page display information by the maintenance transmission management module and returned to the PMAT display page. There are two ways to implement this: 1. OHMS system interaction with member systems based on ARINC664 The Configurable Health Management System (OHMS) needs to interact with member systems during operation. Receiving and sending information constitutes the message response mechanism between OHMS and member systems. The communication protocol between OHMS and member systems is designed in accordance with the "Airborne Health Management System Member System Specification".
[0032] This project's OHMS communicates with external member systems based on ARINC664, and can support member systems with ARINC664 and ARINC429 communication protocols.
[0033] The communication messages generated by OHMS when communicating with member systems can be divided into the following three categories according to their functions: 1. Parameter class: Used when a system is requesting and subsequently receiving data from another system, or when a system is updating parameter values for other systems.
[0034] 2. Event Class: Used when a system transmits data to another system, and the system is based on an event determined by the internal logic of the original system, the receiving system can report the event and return a response.
[0035] 3. Command type: Used when one system commands another system to perform a certain operation, and the other system responds with the result of the operation.
[0036] The directional instruction information sent by OHMS to member systems is as follows: 1. ACK, NAK (Confirmed, Not Confirmed) 2. Fault status acquisition (from non-periodic LRM) 3. Fault display acquisition 4. Run ground test commands and actions 5. Display ground test suppression command actions 6. Continuous command actions 7. Interrupt command action 8. Failure Information 9. Fault Process Acquisition Upon receiving the instruction information sent by OHMS, the member system must respond to OHMS with the following information types: 1. Fault Activity Event Reporting 2. Reporting of inactive events related to malfunctions 3. Fault Suppression Event Report 4. Cockpit Effect (FDE) Related Report 5. Fault Status Set 6. Fault Status Activity Status 7. Fault monitoring and acquisition 8. Display command actions 9. Ground Test Internal Test Command Response 10. Ground test suppression test command response 11. Ground test completion command response 12. Interruption command response 13. Awaiting news 14. Failure Message Among them, information responses 1 to 6 are for non-periodic LRMs to acquire information, and the corresponding LRMs need to send parameters to OHMS according to the instruction content. 7 to 14 are different response events. OHMS requires member systems to reply with ACKs during member system communication to verify message integrity, enhance the security of information transmission, and ensure reliable communication from the application layer's logical design. For the following types of messages, OHMS does not require member system ACK responses: 1. Periodic broadcasts issued by OHMS to all member systems.
[0037] 2. All parameter retrieval messages transmitted by OHMS should be sent directly by the member system after receiving the retrieval message instruction, without the need to reply with an ACK.
[0038] 3. All instruction action messages transmitted by OHMS are similar to parameter retrieval messages.
[0039] 4. All periodic fault reports can be collected directly as they are periodic information.
[0040] 5. Activity reports of LRM in all member systems.
[0041] In other cases, for the vast majority of non-periodic information, a response should be given to the system within the specified time period. When a member system cannot respond to an OHMS request within the specified time, it can send a request to wait for a response to the system.
[0042] OHMS will not transmit any additional commands until the member system has completed responding to all commands issued by OHMS. If no response is received from the member system, OHMS will attempt to send two more commands. If a response message is still not received within the specified response time, a fault should be considered.
[0043] The OHMS system communicates with PMAT devices via Ethernet. The OHMS software communicates with PMAT via Ethernet. The two sides exchange control commands and display data through built-in instructions and data packets, using the protocol format currently used with side display systems.
[0044] The sending format is as follows: Multi-byte data is processed using big-endian byte order (high-endian first, low-endian last). The header information is as follows: appID (two bytes) messageID (two bytes) Followed by specific parameter values, configured according to PMAT's specific requirements. The receiving format is as follows: The header information is as follows: appID (two bytes) messageID (two bytes) Followed by specific parameter values, configured according to PMAT's specific requirements. Assemble a byte array; the following is a code example: TCmesg[0] = (byte)(appID >> 8); TCmesg[1] = (byte)appID; TCmesg[2] = (byte)(messageID >> 8); TCmesg[3] = (byte)messageID; TCmesg[4] = (byte)(elapsedTime >> 24); TCmesg[5] = (byte)(elapsedTime >> 16); TCmesg[6] = (byte)(elapsedTime >> 8); TCmesg[7] = (byte)elapsedTime; TCmesg[8] = (byte)(powerCycle >> 24); TCmesg[9] = (byte)(powerCycle >> 16); TCmesg
[10] = (byte)(powerCycle >> 8); TCmesg
[11] = (byte)powerCycle; Different message formats are distinguished by messageID, and messages corresponding to different interface data are defined one by one according to the actual interface display data.
Claims
1. A configurable aircraft avionics core maintenance subsystem, characterized in that, This includes a health management system, a portable maintenance access terminal, and multiple member systems; among which, The health management system communicates with various member systems and external devices via the aviation bus to collect flight status data, time data, and member system maintenance data. The health management system communicates with a portable maintenance access terminal via Ethernet to interact with maintenance personnel's maintenance operation requests and the information displayed on the maintenance page.
2. The aircraft avionics core maintenance subsystem according to claim 1, characterized in that, The health management system includes a basic communication layer, which comprises a 664 message communication module and an IO management module. The IO management module collects and parses ARINC664 protocol data and distributes data between internal functional modules by calling the ARINC664 board driver read / write interface.
3. The aircraft avionics core maintenance subsystem according to claim 1, characterized in that, The health management system includes a data processing layer, which comprises a data retrieval configuration parsing module, a data retrieval parsing module, and a database storage module. The data retrieval parsing module formats and parses the bus data based on the parsing target configured by the data retrieval configuration parsing module, and stores the parsed data in the database storage module.
4. The aircraft avionics core maintenance subsystem according to claim 1, characterized in that, The health management system includes a business function layer, which includes: The flight status identification module is used to identify the current air-to-ground status, flight segment, flight phase, flight number, and flight identifier of the aircraft, and generate a flight status report. The configuration management module is used to identify the current hardware and software configuration information of member systems based on the maintenance data received from the member systems. The central maintenance module includes several maintenance function modules, which are used to monitor the health status of the aircraft's avionics and mechanical systems, process fault information and parameter data reported by various member systems, detect and locate avionics and mechanical faults, and merge, isolate or record fault data. The integrated fault diagnosis module is used to monitor the fault information of each member system based on the maintenance database, calculate the fault status data according to the fault diagnosis model, and generate and store fault reports. The maintenance and calibration module is used to respond to start test requests, execute start test logic, calculate start test protocol data, and generate start test reports; The maintenance record management module is used to manage maintenance report data; The lifecycle monitoring module is used to monitor the number of power cycles and the number of times the member system has been powered on since production.
5. The aircraft avionics core maintenance subsystem according to claim 4, characterized in that, Maintenance report data includes fault reports, configuration reports, and flight status reports.
6. The aircraft avionics core maintenance subsystem according to claim 4, characterized in that, The health management system also includes an external interaction layer, which comprises a TCP data communication module, a terminal interface module, and a maintenance transmission management module. The TCP data communication module is used to send stored formatted data in response to external data requests. The terminal interface module is used to receive maintenance operation events from the portable maintenance access terminal, generate and dispatch maintenance operation requests to the corresponding maintenance function modules. The maintenance transmission management module is used to organize the maintenance display messages generated by the maintenance function modules into maintenance page display information and send it back to the portable maintenance access terminal.
7. The aircraft avionics core maintenance subsystem according to claim 1, characterized in that, When the health management system communicates with the portable maintenance access terminal, it uses big-endian mode to transmit multi-byte data.
8. The aircraft avionics core maintenance subsystem according to claim 7, characterized in that, When big-endian mode is used for transmission, the communication message includes header information, which includes a 2-byte appID and a 2-byte messageID. The messageID is used to distinguish the message format and purpose corresponding to different maintenance scenarios.
9. The aircraft avionics core maintenance subsystem according to claim 8, characterized in that, The communication message also includes a 4-byte elapsedTime field and a 4-byte powerCycle field.
10. The aircraft avionics core maintenance subsystem according to claim 1, characterized in that, The health management system loads different ICD information files, adjusts the data interaction format with member systems, and configures the aviation bus network.