Method for verifying the presence of equipment on board an aircraft, and associated device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11396387-B2
Application number	US-201917294075-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 14, 2019
Priority date	Nov 16, 2018
Publication date	Jul 26, 2022
Grant date	Jul 26, 2022

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method for verifying the presence of equipment (E) on board an aircraft, the method comprising the following steps:—during a flight of the aircraft, implementing ( 102 ) radio communication tests by means of a device ( 2 ) on board the aircraft so as to determine an in-flight list of equipment consisting of any equipment having a quality of radio link with the radio communication device ( 2 ) higher than a first predetermined quality threshold;—after the flight, implementing ( 104 ) radio communication tests by means of the device ( 2 ) so as to determine a post-flight list of equipment consisting of any equipment having a quality of radio link with the radio communication device ( 2 ) higher than a second predetermined threshold after the flight;—generating ( 108 ) an alert when an item of equipment is present on the in-flight list and absent from the post-flight list.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for verifying the presence of equipment on board an aircraft, the method comprising:
during a flight of the aircraft, implementing radio communication tests by means of a device on board the aircraft, so as to determine an in-flight list of equipment consisting of items of equipment having a quality of radio link with the radio communication device higher than a first predetermined quality threshold,
after the flight, implementing radio communication tests by means of the device, so as to determine a post-flight list of equipment consisting of items of equipment having a quality of radio link with the radio communication device higher than a second predetermined quality threshold after the flight,—generating an alert when an item of equipment is present on the in-flight list of equipment and absent from the post-flight list of equipment.

2. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
counting a number of items of equipment present both on the in-flight list of equipment and on the post-flight list of equipment, and comparing the number with a predetermined number of items of equipment,
when the number counted is less than the predetermined number of items of equipment, generating an alert indicating that an insufficient number of items of equipment is located on board the aircraft.

3. The method according to claim 2 , comprising determining, by the device, a type of this item of equipment for each item of equipment present on the in-flight list of equipment or on the post-flight list of equipment, wherein the steps of counting and of comparing are carried out type by type.

4. The method according to claim 3 , wherein the type of an item of equipment is transmitted by said item of equipment to the device.

5. The method according to claim 4 , comprising receiving, by the radio equipment system and from a reference item of equipment, an identifier belonging to said reference item of equipment, and determining, by the device, the type of the reference item of equipment by querying a database associating equipment identifiers and equipment types.

6. The method according to claim 1 , comprising implementing radio communication tests prior to the flight by the device, so as to determine a pre-flight list of equipment consisting of items of equipment having a quality of radio link with the device higher than a third predetermined quality threshold prior to the flight, wherein the alert is generated when an item of equipment is present on the pre-flight list of equipment, present on the in-flight list, and absent from the post-flight list.

7. The method according to claim 6 , wherein:
the device uses a first radio transmission power during the radio communication tests implemented during the flight, and uses a second radio transmission power during the radio communication tests implemented before the flight, wherein the second radio transmission power is higher than or equal to the first radio transmission power.

8. The method according to claim 6 , wherein the first predetermined quality threshold is less than or equal to the third predetermined quality threshold.

9. The method according to claim 1 , wherein:
the device uses a first radio transmission power during the radio communication tests implemented during the flight, and uses a second radio transmission power during the radio communication tests implemented after the flight, wherein the second radio transmission power is higher than or equal to the first radio transmission power.

10. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the first predetermined quality threshold is less than or equal to the second predetermined quality threshold.

11. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
for a reference item of equipment present in the in-flight list of equipment or in the post-flight list of equipment, calculating a delay elapsed since a preceding implementation of radio communication tests,—comparing the delay with a predetermined shelf life of the item of equipment,
generating an alert indicating that the reference item of equipment is outdated when the elapsed delay is greater than the shelf life.

12. The method according claim 1 , wherein the device communicates with the equipment via an IoT type network.

13. The method according claim 1 , wherein the device communicates with the equipment via a LPWAN network.

14. A system for verifying the presence of equipment on board an aircraft, the system for verifying the presence of equipment comprising a radio communication device configured to implement the following steps once on board the aircraft:
during a flight of the aircraft, implementing radio communication tests, so as to determine an in-flight list of equipment consisting of items of equipment having a quality of radio link with the device higher than a first predetermined quality threshold,
after the flight, implementing radio communication tests by the device so as to determine a post-flight list of equipment consisting of items of equipment having a quality of radio link with the device higher than a second predetermined threshold after the flight,
generating an alert when an item of equipment is present on the in-flight list of equipment and absent from the post-flight list of equipment.

Assignees

• Safran Electronics & Defense
• Safran Electronics And Defense

Inventors

• Fanton Nicolas
• Lipari Nicolas
• Tine Pierre-Jean
• Couturier Emmanuel
• Artault Alexandre

Classifications

• B64F5/60 Primary

  Testing or inspecting aircraft components or systems · CPC title

• B64D11/0629

  the storage means being specially adapted for emergency equipment · CPC title

• B64D11/0631

  for life vests · CPC title