Maintenance Data Filtering via Personnel Proximity Detection
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional electronic maintenance technical publications for complex structures are voluminous, making it difficult to quickly and efficiently locate maintenance-procedure data for specific components or assemblies, especially in large structures like aircraft with hundreds or thousands of repairable components.
Innovation Solution
An apparatus and system that uses a personnel location device with GPS and identification tags to filter maintenance-procedure data from electronic maintenance technical publications based on the proximity of personnel to the structure, creating a filtered publication with relevant data for the object in closest proximity, reducing the volume of data needed to be accessed.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If electronic maintenance technical publications include all maintenance-procedure data for all components and assemblies, then completeness of maintenance information is improved, but volume of data increases making it difficult to locate specific information
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the voluminous maintenance publication into component-specific sections. The system automatically divides the complete maintenance data into manageable segments organized by component or assembly, allowing technicians to access only the relevant segment rather than searching through all data. This segmentation maintains completeness of information while enabling efficient location of specific maintenance procedures.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary system (processor and software) that acts as a mediator between the technician and the complete maintenance publication. This intermediary automatically searches, filters, and retrieves only the relevant maintenance procedures based on the specific component being serviced, eliminating the need for technicians to manually search through the entire publication while ensuring complete and accurate information is provided.
2Loss of information
If electronic maintenance technical publications contain comprehensive data for all repairable components, then information completeness is improved, but data volume increases making navigation difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-organizing and indexing all maintenance data according to component, assembly, and subsystem hierarchies before the technician needs it. The system prepares the complete maintenance publication in advance with all procedures properly categorized and tagged, so when a technician accesses it, the information is already structured for easy retrieval without requiring manual sorting or searching through unorganized data.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements dynamics by making the maintenance publication adaptive and responsive to user needs. The system dynamically filters and displays maintenance procedures based on the specific component being serviced, the technician's selections, and real-time contextual information. This dynamic adaptation maintains complete information availability while automatically adjusting the display to show only relevant procedures, greatly improving ease of operation.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
AI summary
Disclosed herein is an apparatus that includes a personnel location device that is configured to determine a proximity of personnel to a structure. The apparatus also includes a data filter that is configured to filter maintenance-procedure data from an electronic maintenance technical publication responsive to, at least in part, the proximity of personnel to the structure determined by the personnel location device. Additionally, the data filter is configured to create a first filtered electronic maintenance technical publication that includes the maintenance-procedure data filtered from the electronic maintenance technical publication.