Device for collecting and processing flight and maintenance data in an aircraft

Abstract

One aspect of the invention relates to a device embedded in an aircraft, the aircraft comprising a plurality of systems producing aircraft flight data (V) and aircraft maintenance data (M), each system of the plurality of aircraft systems being connected to the device by at least one data bus, the device being configured to collect (51) simultaneously the aircraft flight data (V) and the aircraft maintenance data (M). Figure to be published with the abstract: Figure 4

Description

Title of the invention: Device for collecting and processing flight and maintenance data in an aircraft TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0001] The technical field of the invention is that of data processing in aeronautics.

[0002] The present invention relates to a device for collecting and processing flight data and maintenance data in an aircraft, and in particular a device in which the acquisition of flight data and the acquisition of maintenance messages is synchronized by being carried out simultaneously by the same module, i.e. by the same device. TECHNOLOGICAL BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0003] In most aircraft having a centralized maintenance function, for example preventive maintenance or predictive maintenance, the flight data acquisition and processing systems and the maintenance message acquisition and processing systems are separate systems.

[0004] In an example of the architecture of the Airbus A380® aircraft shown in [Fig.l], the CD AU 20 (from the English “Centralized Data Acquisition Unit” for “Unité d'Acquisition Centralisée de Données” in French) is configured to acquire flight data V and carry out processing of this data V in particular to calculate reports and construct packets to be recorded in memory. Flight data V is data representative of a state of the aircraft linked to the flight, for example the speed of the aircraft, the altitude of the aircraft, the latitude of the aircraft, the heading of the aircraft, data generated by systems of the aircraft, data from pressure or temperature sensors of the aircraft or from flight control surfaces.

[0005] The SCI 10 (from the English "Secure Communication Interface" for "Secure Communication Interface" in French) plays the role of secure gateway and conveys in particular all the maintenance data M generated by the aircraft systems to the centralized function 33 hosted on the ANSUs 34 servers (from the English "Aircraft Network Server Unit" for "Unité de Serveur du Réseau de l'Aéronef" in French). For this, the SCI 10 receives maintenance messages M at a step 1 represented in [Fig.l] and routes the maintenance messages to the CMS 32 maintenance function (from the English "Centralized Maintenance System" for "Système de Maintenance Centralisée" in French). The flow of maintenance messages M contains failure messages P but also regular "Good Health" messages sent recurrently by all the so-called systems “members” connected to the SCI 10. M maintenance messages are for example implemented according to the “BITE” protocol for “Built-in Test Equipment”, for example following the ARINC® 624 standard.

[0006] Subsequently, in step 2, the CMS maintenance function 32 identifies a failure message P of a member system for which flight data V would make it possible to better understand the context of the occurrence of failures.

[0007] In step 3, the CMS maintenance function 32 makes a request to the ACMS function 33 (from the English “Aircraft Condition Monitoring System”) to acquire a predefined set of flight data V.

[0008] In step 4, the ACMS function 33 makes a request for flight data V to the CDAU 20. In step 5, the CDAU 20 processes this request, i.e. it retrieves the requested flight data V, for example belonging to a subset of member systems over a defined duration.

[0009] In step 6, these requested flight data V are transmitted from the CDAU 20 to the ACMS function 33.

[0010] In step 7, the ACMS function receives the requested flight data V and creates a incident file related to the failure reported by the failure message P.

[0011] In step 8, the incident file is stored by the storage system 34.

[0012] This method of recording data in connection with an incident poses in particular a problem to trace the cause of the incident, as described below.

[0013] As shown in [Fig.2], the state changes of the data streams datai and data2 represent the imminence of a system failure, also called an “incident”, for example of a component of the infrastructure of the aircraft in which the system is embedded. Each data stream Datai to Data5 shown in [Fig.2] comprises flight data V.

[0014] The data flow datai changes state twice before the appearance of a fault message P and the data flow data2 changes state once after the change of state of datai and then a second time at the appearance of the fault message P.

[0015] The fact that the two acquisition systems CDAU 20 and SCI 10 are distinct has the consequence that a request S for processing and recording a snapshot of the flight data V by the maintenance function 33 will arrive too late to capture the changes of Datai and Data2, as shown in [Fig. 3], the window F not encompassing all the changes of state of Datai and Data2 which led to the incident. Even if the flight data acquisition function 20 V were configured to record the data over a sliding time window, there would be no guarantee of capturing all the flight data V because making an acquisition over a sliding time window requires a lot of resources, said resources being limited in such a system. Moreover, there is then no guarantee that the request S for processing and recording always arrives in the same time interval.

[0016] Since there is no guarantee on the arrival of the processing and recording request S, the recorded time window F represented in [Fig.3] does not cover all the changes of state of the data flows datai and data2.

[0017] This situation leads to drawing erroneous conclusions about the type of precursor to be detected by preventive maintenance tools and is therefore more critical compared to the situation in which incident information is not reported at all.

[0018] Thus, in the state of the art, when an aircraft system generates a failure message P, it is difficult to identify the root cause of the failure. This is due to the architecture of the aircraft network which is switched and distributed, to the different functions carried by applications and to the complexity of certain systems.

[0019] There is therefore a need to be able to trace the cause of an incident, in an aircraft implementing an incident detection function based on maintenance messages and flight data. Summary of the invention

[0020] The invention offers a solution to the problems mentioned above, by making it possible to trace the cause of the detected incidents more simply and more quickly than the prior art.

[0021] One aspect of the invention thus relates to a device on board an aircraft, the aircraft comprising a plurality of systems producing aircraft flight data and aircraft maintenance data, each system of the plurality of aircraft systems being connected to the device by at least one data bus, the device being configured to simultaneously collect the aircraft flight data and the aircraft maintenance data.

[0022] The present invention, by the simultaneous acquisition of flight data and maintenance data by the same device, makes it possible to trace the cause of detected incidents simply and quickly. Indeed, the same device collects both types of data simultaneously, guaranteeing synchronization of maintenance data, used to detect an incident, and flight data, used to trace the cause of the incident.

[0023] In addition to the characteristics which have just been mentioned in the preceding paragraph, the device according to one aspect of the invention may have one or more additional characteristics among the following, considered individually or according to all technically possible combinations: • the collection of aircraft flight data includes the acquisition of a first predefined data stream for each system of the plurality of systems of the aircraft over a predefined sliding time window and collecting the aircraft maintenance data comprises acquiring a second predefined data stream for each system of the plurality of systems of the aircraft over said predefined sliding time window, • the device is further configured to: • Process the collected aircraft maintenance data to detect an incident, • When an incident is detected, store the collected flight data corresponding to the incident, • the storage of flight data corresponding to the incident includes the storage of aircraft flight data collected during the predefined sliding time window covering an instant during which the detected incident took place, • the device comprises a single processor configured to carry out the collection and processing steps and at least one memory configured to implement the storage step.

[0024] Another aspect of the invention relates to a method for acquiring and processing data by the device according to the invention, the method comprising at least the steps of: • Simultaneous collection of aircraft flight data and aircraft maintenance data, • Processing of aircraft maintenance data collected to detect an incident, • When an incident is detected, storage of flight data collected during the predefined sliding time window corresponding to the detected incident.

[0025] Another aspect of the invention relates to an aircraft carrying the device according to the invention.

[0026] Another aspect of the invention relates to a computer program product comprising instructions which, when the program is executed by a computer, cause the latter to implement the method according to the invention.

[0027] Another aspect of the invention relates to a computer-readable recording medium comprising instructions which, when executed by a computer, cause the latter to implement the method according to the invention.

[0028] The invention and its various applications will be better understood upon reading the following description and examining the accompanying figures. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

[0029] The figures are presented for information purposes only and in no way limit the invention. • [Fig.l] shows a schematic representation of an aircraft data acquisition and processing system according to the prior art, • [Fig.2] shows a schematic representation of aircraft data flow and failure detection according to the prior art, • [Fig.3] shows a schematic representation of data flow of a aircraft, of a failure detection and of an action linked to the detected failure according to the prior art, • [Fig.4] shows a schematic representation of a device for acquiring and processing data from an aircraft according to the invention, • [Fig.5] shows a schematic representation of data flow of a aircraft, of a failure detection and of an action linked to the detected failure according to the invention, • [Fig.6] shows a schematic representation of a detection method incident according to the invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0030] Unless otherwise specified, the same element appearing in different figures has a single reference.

[0031] [Fig.4] shows a schematic representation of a device according to the invention.

[0032] The device according to the invention comprises a module 41 for collecting flight data V and maintenance data M, a module 42 for processing maintenance data M, and a storage module 34.

[0033] The device 40 according to the invention is on board an aircraft (not shown), that is to say it is included in an aircraft. The device according to the invention comprises at least one processor and one memory, the memory storing instructions which, when executed by the processor, lead the processor to implement the steps assigned to the device and / or to implement the software modules included in the device. The term “module” means a software module or a physical module. A software module is a succession of steps leading to the performance of the function associated with the software module.

[0034] [Fig. 6] shows a schematic representation of a method for collecting and processing data according to the invention. The method 50 comprises three steps 51 to 53. The method 50 is implemented by the device 40.

[0035] In a first step 51, the collection module 41 of the device 40 simultaneously collects the flight data V and the maintenance data M of the aircraft.

[0036] The aircraft comprises a plurality of systems, for example, metric probes physical such as temperature or pressure, flight control systems, flight control surfaces, etc. These systems are connected to the device 40 via buses. Each system is connected to the device 40 via at least one bus dedicated to it, or which is shared with another system. In the case of a shared bus, the data which transits on the bus are identified by an identifier which they include, for example a header. A system can be connected to the device 40 by several buses, for example by a first bus transmitting maintenance data M and by a second bus transmitting flight data V.Flight data V is data representative of a state of the aircraft linked to flight V, for example the speed of the aircraft, the altitude of the aircraft, the latitude of the aircraft, the heading of the aircraft, data generated by aircraft systems, data from pressure or temperature sensors of the aircraft or flight control surfaces. Maintenance data M contains failure or incident messages P, sent by a system that has failed or has detected an incident or an operation deviating from its normal operation, but also regular “Good Health” messages sent recurrently by all the systems connected to the device 40.

[0037] The flight data V and maintenance data M are received by the device 40 on each of the data buses connected to the systems of the aircraft. The device 40 thus simultaneously collects at step 51 the data of the two types, that is to say the flight data V and the maintenance data M. By “simultaneously” is meant at the same time, that is to say that the device 40 reads at the same time instant, on each bus connecting it to a system of the aircraft, data streams coming from the systems of the aircraft, the data streams comprising maintenance data streams M and flight data streams V. By “collecting data” is meant the act of reading the data on an input bus of the device 40, therefore receiving the data.

[0038] Preferably, the device 40 comprises a quad-core QorlQ® T1042 processor from NXP® implementing the collection 41 and processing 42 software modules. Indeed, it has been shown that this processor has the capacity to carry out a massive acquisition of flight data V and maintenance data M. A massive acquisition corresponds to an acquisition of data occurring on each bus connected to the device 40 at each instant, the data comprising between 300,000 and 500,000 parameters per second. A parameter can be a boolean such as a 32-bit message, the input data therefore representing at most 16 megabits per second. This processor has the capacity to store the input data in a buffer, then to make them available to applications implemented by the processor.This processor is also capable of processing input data with a refresh rate of 64 Hz, and of processing the fastest input data, that is, input data with a refresh rate between 100 and 200 Hz.

[0039] The device 40 may comprise any processor implementing the collection 41 and processing 42 software modules and capable of storing the input data, i.e. the flight data V and the maintenance data M, in a buffer (also called a “buffer memory”), in order to then make them available to applications implemented by the processor. Generally speaking, such a processor must be capable of processing input data having a refresh rate of 64 Hz, or be capable of processing the fastest input data, i.e. the input data having a refresh rate of between 100 and 200 Hz.

[0040] The device 40 distinguishes the flight data V from the maintenance data M by configuration, that is to say that the device 40 has access to a configuration file indicating to it on which input bus(es) the maintenance data M are located and on which other input bus(es) the flight data V are located. Thus, the device 40 is capable of simultaneously collecting data of two different types and of distinguishing them. The data collection thus comprises the acquisition of a first flow of flight data V and the acquisition of a second flow of maintenance data M.

[0041] The device 40 is configured to collect the data over a predefined sliding time window F. The data is buffered, the buffer corresponding to the duration of the predefined sliding time window F. This predefined sliding window F is “predefined” in that it has a duration predefined by configuration, for example in a configuration file accessible to the device 40. The predefined duration of this time window is for example between 1 minute and 15 minutes, preferably 5 minutes. Advantageously, the use of a predefined sliding time window makes it possible to adapt the detection of incidents to the causes of incidents sought, for example by predefining a longer time window to detect incidents caused by errors over a long period.By using a predefined sliding time window F, it is possible to easily save what is stored in the buffer to a more durable memory 34 such as a hard disk or non-volatile memory. In addition, the flight data V and maintenance data M are synchronized because they are included in the buffer as soon as they are received.

[0042] In a step 52 of the method 50, the device processes the collected aircraft maintenance data M to detect an incident. Incident detection will not be described. Any method for detecting an incident from aircraft maintenance data M can be used to implement the invention. Upon receiving maintenance data M corresponding to an incident, for example a failure P, the device 40 is configured to perform step 53.

[0043] In step 53, the collected flight data V corresponding to the incident are stored in a durable memory such as a non-volatile memory 34. The flight data V corresponding to the incident can be defined by configuration, for example in a configuration file accessible by the device 40. Such a configuration can define, depending on a type of incident, one or more types of flight data V to be stored. The flight data V corresponding to the incident are the flight data V transmitted at a time relating to the incident, for example before, during and after the incident. To store the flight data V corresponding to the detected incident, the device 40 simply transfers the contents of the buffer memory corresponding to the predefined sliding time window at the time of detection of the incident to a non-volatile memory 34. The flight data V corresponding to the detected incident, for example the failure P as shown in [Fig.5], are then stored together with the maintenance data M, and the stored data are synchronized, thanks to the simultaneous collection by the same processor of the two types of data: flight data V and maintenance data M, and thanks to the performance of the processing 52 by the same device 40 which performed the collection 51. As shown in [Fig. 5], the sliding time window F covers the changes in state of the data flows datai and data2 which led to the failure P, because the incident detection following the processing 52 is performed without delay by the same device 40 which performed the data collection. Thus, this same device 40 which processed the maintenance data M has access to the flight data V synchronized with these same maintenance data M which were used to detect the incident. Thanks to the invention, it is therefore possible to go back to the root cause of the incident in a simple and reliable manner.

[0044] In a preferred embodiment, the device 40 comprises a single processor configured to implement the collection 51 and processing 52 steps and at least one memory 34.

Claims

Claims

1. Device on board an aircraft, the aircraft comprising a plurality of systems producing flight data (V) of the aircraft and maintenance data (M) of the aircraft, each system of the plurality of systems of the aircraft being connected to the device by at least one data bus, the device being configured to simultaneously collect (51) the flight data (V) of the aircraft and the maintenance data (M) of the aircraft, the collection of the flight data (V) of the aircraft comprising the acquisition of a first predefined data stream for each system of the plurality of systems of the aircraft over a predefined sliding time window (F) and the collection of the maintenance data (M) of the aircraft comprising the acquisition of a second predefined data stream for each system of the plurality of systems of the aircraft over said predefined sliding time window (F),the device being further configured to: - Process (52) the aircraft maintenance data (M) collected to detect an incident, - When an incident is detected, store (53) the flight data (V) collected corresponding to the incident.,

2. Device according to the preceding claim according to which the storage of the flight data (V) corresponding to the incident comprises the storage of the flight data (V) of the aircraft collected during the predefined sliding time window (F) covering an instant during which the detected incident took place.

3. Device according to any one of the preceding claims comprising a single processor configured to carry out the collection and processing steps and at least one memory configured to implement the storage step.

4. Method for acquiring and processing data by the device according to any one of the preceding claims, the method comprising at least the steps of: - Simultaneous collection (51) of the flight data (V) of the aircraft and the maintenance data (M) of the aircraft, - Processing (52) of the maintenance data (M) of the aircraft collected to detect an incident, - When an incident is detected, storage (53) of the flight data (V) collected during the predefined sliding time window (F) corresponding to the detected incident.

5.

6. Aircraft comprising the device according to one of claims 1 to 3. Computer program product comprising instructions which, when the program is executed by a computer, cause the latter to implement the data acquisition and processing method according to claim 4.

7. A computer-readable recording medium comprising instructions which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to carry out the data acquisition and processing method according to claim 4.

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