System and method for vehicle build verification

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9678488-B1
Application number	US-201314084159-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Nov 19, 2013
Priority date	Nov 19, 2013
Publication date	Jun 13, 2017
Grant date	Jun 13, 2017

Abstract

A system and method for performing build verification of equipment systems after being installed in a partially constructed vehicle portion. After installing one or more of prerequisite equipment systems during a current build stage of a vehicle build plan, the installed equipment systems are tested during the current build stage to determine whether the installed equipment systems are electrically connected correctly.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method for verifying proper installation of equipment systems in a vehicle designed to be assembled in multiple build stages, the method comprising:
retrieving a data structure describing a build plan for assembling the vehicle, wherein the build plan comprises a plurality of build stages, and wherein the build plan specifies, for each of the plurality of build stages, a respective plurality of prerequisite equipment systems to be installed in the vehicle during the build stage;
determining a current build stage, of the plurality of build stages, of one or more partially constructed vehicle portions of the vehicle;
determining a set of prerequisite equipment systems to be installed in the one or more partially constructed vehicle portions, corresponding to the current build stage;
determining one or more equipment systems that have been installed in the one or more partially constructed vehicle portions during the current build stage, based on build state information for the one or more partially constructed vehicle portions;
determining one or more diagnostic tests that are configured to test for a predefined electrical connectivity of the one or more equipment systems;
emulating, by operation of one or more non-transitory computer processors, data communications, over a data communications network, from one or more prerequisite equipment systems not yet installed in the one or more partially constructed vehicle portions, during the current build stage;
initiating the one or more diagnostic tests, during the current build stage, using the emulated data communications from the one or more prerequisite equipment systems, to determine whether the one or more equipment systems are correctly installed in the vehicle, without requiring the one or more prerequisite equipment systems to be physically installed in the one or more partially constructed vehicle portions; and
upon determining that the one or more systems are incorrectly installed, based on a failure of a first one of the one or more diagnostic tests, facilitating a correction of the failure of the first diagnostic test.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising testing during the current build stage whether data communications exist to the one or more installed equipment systems in the one or more partially constructed vehicle portions.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising determining during the current build stage which prerequisite equipment systems are not yet installed.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3 , further comprising ignoring testing of prerequisite equipment systems to be installed during the current build stage, but not yet installed in the one or more partially constructed vehicle portions.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising suppressing nuisance errors as a result of prerequisite equipment systems not yet installed within the one or more partially constructed vehicle portions.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising testing whether the one or more installed equipment systems correctly installed during the current build stage remain correctly installed during a subsequent one of the plurality of build stages.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein emulating data communications comprises emulating data communications for controlling distribution of primary power across a power busing network system that is not yet available to the one or more partially constructed vehicle portions during the current build stage.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7 , wherein emulating data communications comprises indicating a state of at least one contactor of a primary power switching network device that is not yet installed in the one or more partially constructed vehicle portions during the current build stage.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising determining which installed equipment systems are safe to operate while someone is in proximity to the one or more partially constructed vehicle portions, and automating the testing of at least one of the one or more installed equipment systems on the one or more partially constructed vehicle portions.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising generating a record of each occurrence of one or more tests performed during one or more of the plurality of build stages on the one or more installed equipment systems on the one or more partially constructed vehicle portions.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising progressively testing during subsequent one or more of the plurality of build stages whether the one or more installed equipment systems remain correctly electrically connected to the one or more partially constructed vehicle portions.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising testing during the current build stage whether the one or more installed equipment systems installed during a previous build stage remain correctly electrically connected to the one or more partially constructed vehicle portions.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising partitioning build verification software from flight management software.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising disabling build verification software after final assembly of the vehicle.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising removing build verification software after final assembly of the vehicle.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising installing flight management software in place of build verification software after final assembly of the vehicle.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising hosting build verification software on a computing and network interface (CNI) module of a modular equipment center (MEC) in the one or more partially constructed vehicle portions.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 17 , testing electrical connections between one or more equipment loads and the MEC in the one or more partially constructed vehicle portions.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 17 , testing data connections between one or more equipment loads and the MEC in the one or more partially constructed vehicle portions.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising hosting build verification software on a computing and network interface (CNI) module of a modular equipment center (MEC) and on a CNI module of a remote modular equipment center (RMEC), and testing an electrical connection between the MEC and the RMEC.

21. The computer-implemented method of claim 20 , further comprising testing a data connection between the MEC and the RMEC.

22. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising hosting build verification software on a computing and network interface (CNI) module of a remote modular equipment center (RMEC) in the one or more partially constructed vehicle portions.

23. The computer-implemented method of claim 22 , testing electrical connections between one or more sensors and the RMEC in the one or more partially constructed vehicle portions.

24. The computer-implemented method of claim 22 , testing data connections between one or more sensors and the RMEC in the one or more partially constructed vehicle portion

Assignees

• Boeing Co

Inventors

• Dhondt Jon J
• Mcavoy Michael B
• Thomas Terrance L
• Shander Mark S
• Ferrer Alberto
• Walstrom Steven M

Classifications

• G05B15/02 Primary

  electric · CPC title

• B64F5/60 Primary

  Testing or inspecting aircraft components or systems · CPC title

• B64D2221/00

  Electric power distribution systems onboard aircraft · CPC title

• G05B23/0256

  injecting test signals and analyzing monitored process response, e.g. injecting the test signal while interrupting the normal operation of the monitored system; superimposing the test signal onto a control signal during normal operation of the monitored system · CPC title