Pointing Instrument Alignment for Aircraft Component Location
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for locating components underneath a surface of an airplane, such as during maintenance, are time-consuming and inaccurate, relying on visual correlation and mental mapping, which hinders efficient access panel identification and component location.
Innovation Solution
A method using a pointing instrument with an aim point axis and instrument coordinate system, involving inverse calibration matrices and inverse kinematics to align the instrument's aim point axis with the component or access panel, allowing for precise location and orientation, thereby facilitating faster and more accurate component and access panel identification.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If maintenance technicians use visual determination and mental correlation to locate components, then they can identify component locations, but the process takes significant time and reduces accuracy
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the manual visual inspection and mental correlation process with an automated optical scanning system that uses cameras, lasers, and image processing to automatically locate components and determine access panel requirements, eliminating the time-consuming manual search while maintaining high accuracy
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates digital copies and 3D models of the physical structure, allowing maintenance personnel to interact with virtual representations rather than physically searching the actual structure, enabling rapid component location and access panel identification without time loss
2Ease of operation
If technicians manually correlate maintenance zones with drawing illustrations, then they can identify access panels, but the process is complex and time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The system replaces manual correlation of maintenance zones with drawing illustrations by using automated image recognition and 3D modeling to directly identify access panels, eliminating the need to mentally map between physical structures and 2D drawings
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a computer-generated 3D model as an intermediary between the physical structure and the maintenance personnel, allowing direct visualization of component locations and access panel requirements without requiring interpretation of 2D drawings or mental correlation
3Measurement precision
If a pointing instrument is used to locate components, then alignment precision improves, but the complexity of coordinate transformation and inverse kinematics calculations increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary calibration to establish coordinate transformations between different reference frames before actual component location, creating lookup tables and pre-computed transformation matrices that simplify real-time operations and reduce the complexity of on-the-fly calculations
Data Source
AI summary
A first method locates a component positioned underneath a surface of a target object using a pointing instrument, wherein a position of the component in the target object coordinate system is known. The first method includes calculating an orientation of the aim point axis of the instrument in the instrument coordinate system for the aim point axis of the instrument to be aligned with the component using at least an inverse calibration matrix, the position of the component in the target object coordinate system, and inverse kinematics of the instrument. The first method also includes rotating the aim point axis of the instrument to the calculated orientation. Second and third methods also are described for locating an access panel for accessing the component and/or maintenance zones in which the component resides.