Method for processing an error when performing a predetermined avionics procedure, related computer program and detection and alert system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10510243-B2
Application number	US-201816148834-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 1, 2018
Priority date	Oct 17, 2017
Publication date	Dec 17, 2019
Grant date	Dec 17, 2019

Abstract

A method for processing an error when performing a predetermined avionics procedure, related computer program and detection and alert system is disclosed. In one aspect, the method is carried out automatically by the detection and alert system of an aircraft, the method including monitoring the operation of one or several avionics device(s) of the aircraft, the monitoring based on the tracking of a sequence representative of the predetermined avionics procedure being carried out. The method further includes: detecting a break of the sequence due to an incorrect command and/or skipping of at least one expected command according to the predetermined avionics procedure being performed, and retrieving at least one piece of information representative of the break in the sequence.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of processing an error when performing a predetermined avionics procedure, the method being carried out automatically by a detection and alert system of an aircraft, the method comprising:
monitoring the operation of one or several avionics device(s) of the aircraft, the monitoring based on tracking a sequence representative of the predetermined avionics procedure being carried out;
detecting a break of the sequence due to an incorrect command and/or due to a skipping of at least one expected command according to the predetermined avionics procedure being performed;
retrieving at least one piece of information representative of the break in the sequence; and
monitoring the operation of one or several avionics device(s) of the aircraft corresponding to the monitoring of real-time states of the avionics device(s); the detecting comprising a comparison of the real-time states of one or several avionics device(s) of the aircraft with at least one of the following elements:
a set of prohibited states, associated with the predetermined avionics procedure, and stored in a first dedicated memory space, and
a set of expected states, based on the performance moment of the sequence representative of the avionics procedure, the set of expected states being stored in a second dedicated memory space;

when the comparison of the real-time states and the set of prohibited states is positive, the retrieved representative information corresponds to a first alert comprising a first triplet of data respectively representative of:
the predetermined procedure,
the detected prohibited state from among the real-time states, and
a command to be performed recommended to offset the detected prohibited state,

or wherein the monitoring of the operation of one or several avionics device(s) of the aircraft corresponds to the monitoring of commands received in real time by the avionics device(s), and wherein the detecting comprises a comparison of the commands received in real time with a set of expected commands, based on the performance moment of the sequence representative of the predetermined avionics procedure, the set of expected commands being stored in a third dedicated memory space.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein when the comparing of the real-time states and the set of expected states is negative, the retrieved representative information corresponds to a second alert comprising a second triplet of data respectively representative of:
the predetermined procedure,
the missing expected state from among the real-time states, and
a recommended command to be performed to overcome the missing expected state or to reiterate at least one command associated with at least one previous step of the predetermined procedure.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein, in the first and/or second dedicated memory spaces, each respectively prohibited and/or expected state is automatically associated with a criticality level.

4. The method according to claim 1 , when the comparison of the commands received in real time and the set of expected commands is negative, the retrieved representative information corresponds to a third alert comprising a third triplet of data respectively representative of:
the predetermined procedure,
an unexpected command and/or a missing command from among the commands received in real time, and
a command to be performed recommended to offset the unexpected and/or missing command,
and wherein the method further comprises a time delay for:
the performance of the unexpected command by retrieving a confirmation request for the unexpected command from the crew, and/or
the retrieval of the information representative of the break in the sequence, by sending a request to enter the missing command.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the method comprises building a database comprising at least one of the first, second, third dedicated memory spaces, by automatic learning or by implementing an inference engine.

6. A computer program product comprising software instructions which, when implemented by an information processing unit integrated into a detection and alert system of an aircraft, implements a processing method of processing an error when performing a predetermined avionics procedure, the method being carried out automatically by a detection and alert system of an aircraft, the method comprising:
monitoring the operation of one or several avionics device(s) of the aircraft, the monitoring based on tracking a sequence representative of the predetermined avionics procedure being carried out;
detecting a break of the sequence due to an incorrect command and/or due to a skipping of at least one expected command according to the predetermined avionics procedure being performed;
retrieving at least one piece of information representative of the break in the sequence; and
monitoring the operation of one or several avionics device(s) of the aircraft corresponding to the monitoring of real-time states of the avionics device(s); the detecting comprising a comparison of the real-time states of one or several avionics device(s) of the aircraft with at least one of the following elements:
a set of prohibited states, associated with the predetermined avionics procedure, and stored in a first dedicated memory space, and
a set of expected states, based on the performance moment of the sequence representative of the avionics procedure, the set of expected states being stored in a second dedicated memory space;

when the comparison of the real-time states and the set of prohibited states is positive, the retrieved representative information corresponds to a first alert comprising a first triplet of data respectively representative of:
the predetermined procedure,
the detected prohibited state from among the real-time states, and
a command to be performed recommended to offset the detected prohibited state,

or wherein the monitoring of the operation of one or several avionics device(s) of the aircraft corresponds to the monitoring of commands received in real time by the avionics device(s), and wherein the detecting comprises a comparison of the commands received in real time with a set of expected commands, based on the performance moment of the sequence representative of the predetermined avionics procedure, the set of expected commands being stored in a third dedicated memory space.

7. A detection and alert system of an aircraft comprising:
a module for monitoring the operation of one or several avionics device(s) of the aircraft and for tracking a sequence representative of a predetermined avionics procedure being carried out,
wherein the detection and alert system is configured to process an error during the performance of the predetermined avionics procedure, and further comprises:
a module for detecting a break of the sequence due to an incorrect command and/or due to a skipping of at least one expected command according to the predetermined avionics procedure being performed, and
a module for retrieving at least one piece of information representative of the break in the sequence,

the monitoring of the operation of one or several avionics device(s) of the aircraft, implemented by the monitoring module, corresponding to the monitoring of real-time states of the avionics device(s), and the detection, carried out by the detection module, comprising a comparison of the real-time states of one or several avionics device(s) of the aircraft with at least one of the following elements:
a set of prohibited states, associated with the predetermined avionics procedure, and stored in a first dedicated memory space, and
a set of expected states, based on the performance moment of the sequence representative of th

Assignees

• Thales Sa

Inventors

• Deseure Chris
• Flotte Laurent

Classifications

• G06F11/0775

  Content or structure details of the error report, e.g. specific table structure, specific error fields · CPC title

• G06F2201/805

  Real-time · CPC title

• G06F11/28

  by checking the correct order of processing (G06F11/08 - G06F11/26 take precedence; monitoring patterns of pulse trains H03K5/19) · CPC title

• G06F11/0793

  Remedial or corrective actions (recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40) · CPC title

• G05B23/0205

  by means of a monitoring system capable of detecting and responding to faults · CPC title