A Mobile Solution to Enhance Training and Execution of Troubleshooting Techniques of the Engine Air Bleed System on Boeing 737

The process of troubleshooting an aircraft engine requires highly skilled and trained personnel who must be able to respond effectively to any circumstance; therefore, new methods of training to accelerate the cognitive processes of technicians must be integrated in the industry. In this matter the Augmented Reality technology represents an innovative tool that can ensure the efficient and correct transfer of knowledge. The numbers of errors during maintenance tasks can be reduced, AR provides information that is generally not easily available during maintenance operations because, in general, the troubleshooting process for airplane engine is a highly complex task and the diagnosis of a failure is critical for the passengers safety. This research focuses on training and execution of tasks where an aviation technician must be familiarized with a wide variety of technical data, physical components of mechanical systems and the regulations that must be followed to release an airplane for flight, the specialist must develop a correct mind map of the system and should be able to troubleshoot if necessary. The case of study is the 737 Engine Bleed Air System that is designed to provide engine compressed air to air conditioning pack with the purpose of air pressurization during flight; engine air from the compressor is used, from the 5° and the 9° stage in a safe an economical way, knowledge of the correct function of the components will increase safety and considerably reduce cost of maintenance operations. The purpose of the investigation was to develop an ergonomic tool than improves the cognitive process of technician during training for the troubleshooting techniques of the aircraft, but it also can be used to the everyday task by capturing the know-how and helpful tips from more experienced operators. A mobile solution that functions on regular tablets was delivered to enhance the troubleshooting techniques and maintenance procedures of the Engine Air Bleed System, the software can function on two aspects for training and in situ operations. A commercial aeronautical training kit was used to validate the Fault Isolation Software; the results showed that the augmented reality technique takes 17% less time and a quality increment of 24% for this complex assembly system.Rios, H.; Gonzalez, E.; Rodriguez, C.; Siller, HR.; Contero, M. (2013). A Mobile Solution to Enhance Training and Execution of Troubleshooting Techniques of the Engine Air Bleed System on Boeing 737. Procedia Computer Science. 25:161-170. doi:10.1016/j.procs.2013.11.020S1611702

Aeronautical engineering: A continuing bibliography with indexes (supplement 258)

This bibliography lists 536 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system in October 1990. Subject coverage includes: design, construction and testing of aircraft and aircraft engines; aircraft components, equipment and systems; ground support systems; and theoretical and applied aspects of aerodynamics and general fluid dynamics

A framework for aerospace vehicle reasoning (FAVER)

Airliners spend over 9% of their total revenue in Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) and working to bring down the cost and time involved. The prime focus is on unexpected downtime and extended maintenance leading to delays in the flights, which also reduces the trustworthiness of the airliners among the customers. One of the effective solutions to address this issue is Condition based Maintenance (CBM), in which the aircraft systems are monitored frequently, and maintenance plans are customized to suit the health of these systems. Integrated Vehicle Health Management (IVHM) is a capability enabling CBM by assessing the current condition of the aircraft at component/ Line Replaceable Unit/ system levels and providing diagnosis and remaining useful life calculations required for CBM. However, there is a lack of focus on vehicle level health monitoring in IVHM, which is vital to identify fault propagation between the systems, owing to their part in the complicated troubleshooting process resulting in prolonged maintenance. This research addresses this issue by proposing a Framework for Aerospace Vehicle Reasoning, shortly called FAVER. FAVER is developed to enable isolation and root cause identification of faults propagating between multiple systems at the aircraft level. This is done by involving Digital Twins (DTs) of aircraft systems in order to emulate interactions between these systems and Reasoning to assess health information to isolate cascading faults. FAVER currently uses four aircraft systems: i) the Electrical Power System, ii) the Fuel System, iii) the Engine, and iv) the Environmental Control System, to demonstrate its ability to provide high level reasoning, which can be used for troubleshooting in practice. FAVER is also demonstrated for its ability to expand, update, and scale for accommodating new aircraft systems into the framework along with its flexibility. FAVER’s reasoning ability is also evaluated by testing various use cases.Transport System

Estudo de viabilidade de desenvolvimento de um demonstrador de Realidade Virtual para as operações de servicing sobre a aeronave A-29B Super Tucano

Since the birth of aviation, the industry has experienced changes on how an airline operator must perform maintenance operations and how new technicians are trained to perform them to ensure the airworthiness of the aircraft, where the reduction of human errors resulting from non-compliance to the stipulated regulations are one of the main concerns. With the surge of new Virtual Reality technologies, EASA Part-147 approved organizations are enabled to incorporate and direct this new knowledge to the training of new EASA Part-66 approved technicians. However, Virtual Reality technologies must only be used and thought of as a complementary training tool, as it does not provide competencies to perform manual actions as welding, drilling, screwing, among others. Virtual Reality allows the trainee to test his theoretical knowledge at any given time without being limited by the availability of real equipment/components necessary to continue his training, without creating the risk of causing any material damage. All the training performed while resorting to the use of Virtual Reality technologies aims to improve knowledge retention, resulting in better approval rates. In this dissertation, a feasibility study and development of a Virtual Reality demonstrator directed to maintenance training for fuel servicing operations over an A-29B Super Tucano aeroplane must be performed, with the reduction of incidents/accidents reports resulting from wrongly performed procedures set as the main goal. The Virtual Reality application was built on a game engine called Unity, where the user can choose from VR hardware currently available or a mouse and keyboard to perform a fueling procedure. For each procedure, there are three modes available, guided, unguided and VR versions. The guided procedure will provide the user with an oriented experience, where no deviation from the maintenance manual for the fuel servicing action chosen can be performed. Each task will be highlighted in the correct order, providing a visual indication of the task to be executed. An exact copy of the Embraer maintenance manual for the designated procedure will also be provided to be used as a checklist. The unguided procedure allows deviation from the maintenance manual and wrong actions are allowed to be performed. However, a score will be given at the end of the procedure to evaluate how accurately the manual was followed. Embraer maintenance manual will be also provided, but with no checklist. Lastly, the VR version will follow the same fundamentals as the guided version. However, the input and output devices used on the previous 2 versions are replaced by an HMD and two handheld controllers.Desde o seu nascimento, a indústria aeronáutica tem vindo a vivenciar mudanças relativamente a como um operador aéreo realiza as suas atividades de manutenção e como treina os seus técnicos de modo a manter a aeronavegabilidade da sua frota, sendo que a ocorrência de incidentes/acidentes que resultem do incumprimento das regulações/procedimentos impostos pela operadora aérea sejam um foco de melhoria. Com a evolução e surgimento de tecnologias de Realidade Virtual, foi possível a entidades formadoras aprovadas segundo a regulação EASA Part-147, incorporar e direcionar este conhecimento para o treino de técnicos de manutenção. No entanto as mesmas apenas devem ser usadas como uma ferramenta complementar ao treino prático, pois não permitem que se adquira aptidões práticas para realizar tarefas manuais como soldadura, furação, aparafusamento, entre outros. Estas tecnologias permitem que o instruendo tenha a possibilidade de testar os seus conhecimentos teóricos a qualquer momento sem estar limitado pela disponibilidade de componentes reais para dar continuidade à sua formação. Todo este processo de treino com auxílio a aplicações de Realidade Virtual pretende melhorar a retenção de conhecimento, que necessariamente levará a um aumento nas taxas de aprovação dos instruendos. Neste trabalho pretende-se realizar o estudo de viabilidade e desenvolvimento de um demonstrador de Realidade Virtual direcionado ao treino de manutenção, para operações de fuel servicing para a aeronave A29B Super Tucano, com o objetivo de reduzir o número de relatos de incidentes/acidentes resultantes de um procedimento mal-executado. A aplicação de Realidade Virtual desenvolvida no decorrer de este trabalho de investigação, teve por base o motor de jogo Unity, em que o utilizador pode recorrer ao hardware VR atualmente disponível, ou a rato e teclado para realizar o procedimento de fuel servicing. A utilização em simultâneo das opções anteriormente referidas não é possível. Para cada procedimento, três modos de realização da tarefa são possíveis, a versão guiada, não-guiada e RV. A versão guiada fornece ao utilizador uma experiência orientada, onde qualquer desvio do manual de manutenção para o procedimento de reabastecimento escolhido não é permitido. Cada tarefa, segundo a ordem tal como surgem no manual estará destacada, de modo a fornecer uma indicação visual da tarefa a ser executada. Uma cópia exata do manual da Embraer para o procedimento escolhido é também fornecida para ser usado como um checklist. A versão não-guiada permite desvios aos procedimentos do manual de manutenção, assim como a realização de ações erradas do procedimento. No entanto, no final do treino são fornecidos elementos para quantificar os eventuais desvios do manual que tenham ocorrido durante o procedimento. Neste caso, o manual é igualmente fornecido, mas sem checklist. Por fim, na versão de Realidade Virtual, tal como acontece na versão guiada, os fundamentos são iguais, no entanto, a diferença que merece maior destaque é o facto de os aparelhos de input e output deixem de ser o rato, teclado e monitor e passamos a usar um HMD e handheld controllers

Aeronautical engineering: A continuing bibliography with indexes (supplement 227)

This bibliography lists 418 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system in May, 1988

A Concept of Operations for an Integrated Vehicle Health Assurance System

This document describes a Concept of Operations (ConOps) for an Integrated Vehicle Health Assurance System (IVHAS). This ConOps is associated with the Maintain Vehicle Safety (MVS) between Major Inspections Technical Challenge in the Vehicle Systems Safety Technologies (VSST) Project within NASA s Aviation Safety Program. In particular, this document seeks to describe an integrated system concept for vehicle health assurance that integrates ground-based inspection and repair information with in-flight measurement data for airframe, propulsion, and avionics subsystems. The MVS Technical Challenge intends to maintain vehicle safety between major inspections by developing and demonstrating new integrated health management and failure prevention technologies to assure the integrity of vehicle systems between major inspection intervals and maintain vehicle state awareness during flight. The approach provided by this ConOps is intended to help optimize technology selection and development, as well as allow the initial integration and demonstration of these subsystem technologies over the 5 year span of the VSST program, and serve as a guideline for developing IVHAS technologies under the Aviation Safety Program within the next 5 to 15 years. A long-term vision of IVHAS is provided to describe a basic roadmap for more intelligent and autonomous vehicle systems

Effects of Augmented Reality on Student Achievement and Self-Efficacy in Vocational Education and Training

This study aimed to test the impact of augmented reality (AR) use on student achievement and self-efficacy in vocational education and training. For this purpose, a marker-based AR application, called HardwareAR, was developed. HardwareAR provides information about characteristics of hardware components, ports and assembly. The research design was quasi experimental with pre-test post-test that included a control group. The study was conducted with 46 undergraduate students in the Computer Hardware Course. Computer hardware course achievement test, motherboard assembly self-efficacy questionnaire and unstructured observation form were used in the study for data collection purposes. The control group learned the theoretical and applied information about motherboard assembly by using their textbooks (print material) while students in the experimental group used HardwareAR application for the same purpose. It was found that the use of AR had a positive impact on student achievement in motherboard assembly whereas it had no impact on students’ self-efficacy related to theoretical knowledge and assembly skills. On the other hand use of AR helped learners to complete the assembly process in a shorter time with less support. It is concluded that compared to control group students, experimental group students were more successful in computer hardware courses. This result shows that AR application can be effective in increasing achievement. It was concluded that AR application had no effect on students’ motherboard assembly theoretical knowledge self-efficacy and motherboard assembly skills self-efficacy. This result may have been affected from the fact that students had high levels of theoretical knowledge and assembly skills before the implementation. Observations showed that AR application enabled students to assemble motherboard in a shorter time with less support. It is thought that simultaneous interaction between virtual objects and real world provided by the AR application is effective in reducing assembly time. The students who were able to see the process steps and instructions directly with the help of HardwareAR application could complete the assembly by getting less help. Considering these results, it can be argued that, thanks to simultaneous interaction it provides, AR offers an important alternative for topics that need learner application and practice

Methodology for the Field Evaluation of the Impact of Augmented Reality Tools for Maintenance Workers in the Aeronautic Industry

Augmented Reality (AR) enhances the comprehension of complex situations by making the handling of contextual information easier. Maintenance activities in aeronautics consist of complex tasks carried out on various high-technology products under severe constraints from the sector and work environment. AR tools appear to be a potential solution to improve interactions between workers and technical data to increase the productivity and the quality of aeronautical maintenance activities. However, assessments of the actual impact of AR on industrial processes are limited due to a lack of methods and tools to assist in the integration and evaluation of AR tools in the field. This paper presents a method for deploying AR tools adapted to maintenance workers and for selecting relevant evaluation criteria of the impact in an industrial context. This method is applied to design an AR tool for the maintenance workshop, to experiment on real use cases, and to observe the impact of AR on productivity and user satisfaction for all worker profiles. Further work aims to generalize the results to the whole maintenance process in the aeronautical industry. The use of the collected data should enable the prediction of the impact of AR for related maintenance activities

Aeronautical engineering: A continuing bibliography with indexes (supplement 276)

This bibliography lists 705 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system in Feb. 1992. Subject coverage includes: design, construction, and testing of aircraft and aircraft engines; aircraft components, equipment, and systems; ground support systems; and theoretical and applied aspects of aerodynamics and general fluid dynamics

Aeronautical engineering: A continuing bibliography with indexes (supplement 238)

This bibliography lists 458 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system in March, 1989. Subject coverage includes: design, construction and testing of aircraft and aircraft engines; aircraft components, equipment and systems; ground support systems; and theoretical and applied aspects of aerodynamics and general fluid dynamics