JP3331036B2 - Flight data recorder - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for automatically recording various data relating to the state of an airframe or an engine mounted on an aircraft or the like during a flight, when an accident such as a crash occurs.
The present invention relates to a flight data recorder for obtaining data for investigating the cause.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An aircraft is equipped with a voice recorder for recording the voice of a pilot and an automatic recording device for flight information and a status of an aircraft called a flight data recorder. The cause of the accident is clarified by analyzing the aircraft information recorded when the accident occurred. The flight data recorder is configured to record information obtained by various sensors attached to each part of the body on a storage medium. This storage medium (memory) is housed in a special enclosure (container) capable of holding recorded contents even in severe environments such as vibration, impact, and high temperature at the time of an accident.

In recent years, researches have been conducted to utilize aircraft information recorded in a flight data recorder during takeoffs, landings, and during flight for maintenance of aircraft and onboard equipment, and some of them have reached the stage of practical use. For maintenance and maintenance of the aircraft and the engine, it is extremely useful to accumulate various information such as fatigue of the aircraft obtained by the aircraft sensor for a long period of time, systematically process and accumulate past accident examples.

In order to use the data recorded in the flight data recorder for maintenance of the aircraft and the engine, the recorded data is read out and stored every time a flight of 2 to 8 hours for a small aircraft and 3 to 25 hours for a large aircraft is completed. Then, the database is constructed by analyzing the aircraft information for a long time. The safety of the aircraft is further enhanced by evaluating the condition of the aircraft and the engine from this database and performing preventive diagnosis and maintenance.

[0005] Such a flight data recorder is required to be lightweight because it is mounted on an aircraft, and it is particularly important to reduce the size and weight of small aircraft such as helicopters. Therefore, there is a physical constraint on the recording capacity of the recording medium, and there are naturally restrictions on the sampling interval and recording data type of the recording data for sampling the body sensor output.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a conventional flight data recorder. In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a recorder control unit, which is a dedicated sensor for detecting data such as an engine state, a driving state, and navigation information of an aircraft. And a control unit for converting the voice input from the area microphone and the receiving microphone into a predetermined format, and performing control for writing to a magnetic tape or a semiconductor memory of the recording unit 2 as a recording medium. Reference numeral 2 denotes a recording unit, and a memory 9 such as a magnetic tape or a semiconductor memory is stored in a special enclosure 8 (container), and the aircraft is subjected to a strong impact, pressure, fire, or the like due to an explosion, flame, or collision due to an accident. However, the internal recording medium can be protected. Therefore, the enclosure 8 is made of a special metal case.

Reference numeral 13 in the recorder control unit 1 denotes a body sensor interface circuit which inputs information from various sensors and outputs data sampled at a specified sampling frequency for each item. A control circuit 14 converts the format of data input from the sensor interface circuit 13 and outputs information to be recorded and stored to the recorder drive circuit 7. Reference numeral 6 denotes an audio input circuit which takes in an audio input and outputs it to the recorder drive circuit 7. The recorder drive circuit 7 is a drive circuit for a recording signal and a recording control signal for writing data input from the control circuit 14 to the memory 9 of the recording unit 2.

[0008] The configuration example shown in FIG. 3 is a voice flight data recorder (Japanese Patent Application No. Hei 5-105) in which the flight data recorder and the voice recorder proposed by the present inventors are combined to reduce the size and weight. 307048), but the present invention is intended to be applied to a flight data recorder that does not include a voice recorder. According to the above-mentioned conventional flight data recorder, when recording voice, according to the minimum operation performance specification (ED-56) of the flight data recorder, at least 30 minutes or 6 minutes.
It is set to 0 minutes, and in recording data, the recording time is often determined by the time of one flight of the aircraft, and for a small helicopter or the like, it is set to about 2 hours to 4 hours.

[0009]

However, as described above, there is a physical constraint on the recording capacity of the recording medium, and data input from the body sensor is sampled by the body sensor interface circuit. In this case, the sampling period is specified to be about once / second to about four times / second depending on the items of various machine data. However, when trying to use the Flight Data Recorder for aircraft maintenance,
In the conventional sample cycle, even if there is a short-time sudden change, it is not detected, so that it is not sufficient to improve maintenance efficiency and preventive diagnosis based on data analysis results thereafter.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of conventional sampling data. In response to a change in the output level of the body sensor indicated by a broken line in FIG.
As shown in (B), data of a sample period determined for each standard item is recorded in the memory 9. When the contents of the memory 9 are read out after the end of the flight, the sampling point indicates a high level abnormal value, and it is detected that a large level change (event information) has occurred in the part (b). A change between (a) and (c) between and has not been detected. As in this example, with the conventional sample period of 1 to 4 times / second, the event information of the aircraft is not accurately recorded, data collection for maintenance becomes insufficient, and sudden changes such as aircraft vibration may occur. There is a problem that the sensor information of a certain item cannot be accurately grasped.

As a first means for solving such a conventional problem, there is a method of shortening the sampling period by increasing the sampling frequency to 5 to 10 times the conventional value. However, the capacity of a memory for storing high-speed sampling data is reduced. This causes a new problem that physical constraints of miniaturization and weight reduction cannot be satisfied.

As a second solution, there is a method of detecting and recording only event information having a large change in sensor output level so as not to increase the memory capacity. However, there is a disadvantage that long-term continuous data of a long-distance flight is required, and it is not possible to determine the cause of an unexpected accident only with irregular and intermittent event information data.

An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems and to provide a flight data recorder capable of recording continuous data for a long time and recording an event state showing a rapid change. .

[0014]

In the flight data recorder of the present invention, an input from a body sensor is sampled by a body sensor interface circuit, converted into a predetermined format by a control circuit, and stored as specified sampling data at a specified sampling frequency. In the flight data recorder configured to be stored in the memory of the second section, a second memory is provided separately from the memory of the storage section,
The machine body sensor interface circuit, the provision about 5-100 fold Ri by the sampling frequency by a fast sampling frequency of degrees higher frequency outputs speed sampling data obtained by sampling the input from the aircraft sensors, the control circuit, the high-speed sampling data Among them, the sampling data corresponding to the specified sampling frequency is converted into a predetermined format and stored in the memory of the storage unit as the specified sampling data, and the level of the high-speed sampling data is monitored and a value exceeding a specified range or When the rate of change is detected, the high-speed sampling data of that portion is stored as event information in the second memory. The second memory is a memory card that can be inserted and removed, and more specifically, the high-speed sampling frequency is 5 to 100 times the specified sampling frequency. It is a feature.

[0015]

According to the present invention, data input from a large number of body sensors is sampled at a high speed with a clock which is 5 to 100 times that of the conventional one in accordance with each item, and data of the conventional low-speed sampling cycle is recorded in the memory 9 in the enclosure 8. Monitoring the high-speed sampling data for each item, detecting a sudden change exceeding a predetermined value, determining that event information has occurred, recording the event information in a newly provided external memory 5, and analyzing both together. This makes it possible to accurately grasp the state of the aircraft and use it for maintenance.

[0016]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.
In the figure, the same components as those of the conventional components shown in FIG. 3 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof will be omitted. Reference numeral 3 denotes an airframe sensor interface circuit. Although only one is shown in the figure, it is provided corresponding to each of a large number of sensors.
In accordance with each item, a clock having a frequency 5 to 100 times the frequency of the conventional clock is supplied to an analog-to-digital (A / D) converter, and data input is sampled at high speed and output. Reference numeral 5 denotes a newly provided external memory, which is provided separately from the memory in the control circuit 4 and the memory 9 in the storage unit 2. The external memory 5 records only high-speed sampling data (event information) when the output of each body sensor indicates a unique phenomenon. For example, a removable memory card is used so that the contents of the memory can be easily read after the flight.

Reference numeral 4 denotes a control circuit which fetches high-speed sampled body sensor data from the body sensor interface circuit 4 and supplies the data of the conventional low-speed sampling cycle, that is, the sample data of the specified cycle, to the recorder drive circuit 7 as before. When the data is continuously recorded in the memory 9 of the storage unit 2 and the high-speed sampling data is monitored to detect a value or a change rate exceeding a range specified for each item, the high-speed sampling data (event information) of the peculiar phenomenon portion is detected. Is written to the external memory 5. After the flight is completed, the low-speed prescribed sampling data recorded in the normal operation survivability memory 9 in the storage unit 2 and the event data by high-speed sampling recorded in the external memory 5 are read out by the ground reproduction equipment, and both are combined. This can be used as maintenance data.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of sampling data according to the present invention. FIG. 2 (A) shows a change in the body sensor level (broken line) and a high-speed sampling point (〇) as in FIG. 4 (A). (B) is an explanatory diagram of the recording data, and FDR
The recording data is data that has been continuously recorded for a long time with low-speed prescribed sampling data recorded in the memory 9 of the recording unit 2. The data (hatched portion) of the high-speed sampling points (a), (b), and (c) showing the rapid change in level for a short time are data recorded in the external memory 5 as event information.

The sample period of the data to be recorded in the memory 9 accommodated in the solid enclosure 8 of the storage unit 2 and the items of the recording accumulation information are MIL-STD-2124.
It is defined in FLIGHT DATA RECORDER FUNCTIONAL STANDARDS FOR. The machine sensor information of each item is continuously sampled and sequentially recorded. This is because it is necessary to continuously observe and analyze the operation status of each device at the time of the accident in the accident analysis and the like. On the other hand, data used for maintenance does not require continuous recording. For example, taking the engine speed as an example, the data that is important for maintenance are the total operating time of the engine, the number of times the upper limit was exceeded, and the total operating time for each rated speed (for example, at 100% of the rated speed). , Total use time at rated 90%,...). It is not necessary to record the sample value as it is as continuous data, and an event-like change of the body sensor is important. Therefore, recording the input information from the airframe sensor at a prescribed sample period is for accident analysis, and for maintenance, it is important to record only the event information and the accumulated status. Maintenance data can be stored without requiring a memory medium.

[0020]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, by sampling the airframe sensor signal at high speed,
Accident analysis data and maintenance data can be recorded at the same time.Maintenance data is stored in an external memory other than the survivability memory, minimizing the structural dimensions of the device, and providing accurate maintenance data. Since it can be stored and reproduced, its practical effect is extremely large.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the operation of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a conventional configuration example.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a conventional operation.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Recorder control part 2 Storage part 3 Aircraft sensor interface circuit 4 Control circuit 5 External memory 6 Audio input circuit 7 Recorder drive circuit 8 Encloser 9 Memory 13 Aircraft sensor interface circuit 14 Control circuit

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. Flight data configured to sample an input from an airframe sensor by an airframe sensor interface circuit, convert the input into a predetermined format by a control circuit, and store the converted data in a memory of a storage unit as specified sampling data at a specified sampling frequency. in the recorder, the provided separately second memory to the memory of the storage unit, the machine body sensor interface circuit, an input from the aircraft sensors by high sampling frequency of the prescribed sampling frequency by Ri 5 -10 0 times higher frequency The control circuit outputs the sampled high-speed sampling data, the control circuit converts the sampling data corresponding to the specified sampling frequency in the high-speed sampling data into a predetermined format, and writes the converted data as the specified sampling data. And when the value of the high-speed sampling data is monitored and a value exceeding a specified range or a change rate is detected, the high-speed sampling data of the portion is stored as event information in the second memory. A flight data recorder characterized by being constituted. 2. The flight data recorder according to claim 1, wherein the second memory is a removable memory card.