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EP-4741291-A2 - APPARATUS, SYSTEM AND METHOD OF DATA RECORDING

EP4741291A2EP 4741291 A2EP4741291 A2EP 4741291A2EP-4741291-A2

Abstract

A data recording apparatus, data recording system and an orientation determination method thereof is disclosed. The data recording apparatus may include a housing, a wireless communication interface, one or more memories that store executable code; and one or more processors configured to execute the executable code, which causes the one or more processors to: control the communication interface to obtain data from Flight Data Acquisition Unit (FDAU) and store the obtained data in the one or more memories. The obtained data may include one or more of flight data, cockpit data (e.g., cockpit voice data), or cabin data (e.g., cabin voice data). The data recording apparatus may include a detachable attachment means for allowing the data recording apparatus to separate from the airplane in the event of a crash via a passive detachment means.

Inventors

  • Yin, Deryck

Assignees

  • American Standard Aerospace Products LLC

Dates

Publication Date
20260513
Application Date
20210225

Claims (9)

  1. A data recording apparatus comprising: a housing; a wireless communication interface; one or more memories that store executable code; and one or more processors configured to execute the executable code, which causes the one or more processors to: control the wireless communication interface to obtain data from a Flight Data Acquisition Unit, FDAU; and store the obtained data in the one or more memories, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to execute the executable code, which causes the one or more processors to: when powered on, determine whether or not the startup is an initial startup; when the startup is an initial startup, transmit information to a user terminal that prompts users to enter passcode information under respective roles; and based on all the passcodes being entered, encrypt at least a portion of the memory where flight data is stored; and/or when the startup is determined to not be the initial startup, determine whether or not normal communication with the FDAU is established; and when normal communication with the FDAU is not established, perform at least one of the following things: controlling an emergency beacon to turn on, or transmitting global positioning system (GPS) coordinates via a satellite communication interface.
  2. A data recording apparatus comprising: a housing; a wireless communication interface configured to communicate with a Flight Data Acquisition Unit, FDAU, located inside of an airplane via near field communication, NFC, or Bluetooth communication; one or more memories that store executable code; and one or more processors configured to execute the executable code, which causes the one or more processors to: control the wireless communication interface to obtain flight data from the FDAU using the NFC or Bluetooth communication, wherein the flight data includes one or more of: altitude, airspeed, heading, or aircraft attitude; and store the obtained flight data in the one or more memories; wherein the one or more processors are further configured to execute the executable code, which causes the one or more processors to: when normal communication with the airplane has been established, check to determine whether there is any alarm, warning, abnormality or fault that has occurred based on data transmitted by the FDAU to the wireless communication interface; and based on determining that there is an alarm, warning, abnormality or fault that has occurred based on the data transmitted by the FDAU via the wireless communication interface, pull data at a faster data rate than a data rate at which the data is pulled in a normal situation where no alarm, warning, abnormality or fault has been detected, wherein the faster data rate corresponds to increasing a frequency of controlling the communication interface to pull data from the FDAU such that more data is obtained from the FDAU.
  3. A data recording apparatus comprising: a housing; a wireless communication interface; one or more memories that store executable code; and one or more processors configured to execute the executable code, which causes the one or more processors to: control the wireless communication interface to obtain data from a Flight Data Acquisition Unit, FDAU; and store the obtained data in the one or more memories, wherein the one or more processors are configured to: based on detecting that at least one of a communication connection or a power connection between the data recording apparatus and the FDAU is broken, determine that an airplane is in an emergency state and transmit a distress signal.
  4. A system comprising: a data recording apparatus according to claim 1, 2 or 3; and a mounting well mounted on the outside of a fuselage of an airplane from the inside of the fuselage of the airplane, the mounting well being configured to connect the data recording apparatus to the airplane.
  5. An airplane comprising a system according to claim 4.
  6. The airplane of claim 5, wherein the mounting well includes two mounting wells, a first mounting well of the two mounting wells is positioned on a front portion of the fuselage, a second mounting well of the two mounting wells is positioned on a rear portion of the fuselage, and the rear portion of the fuselage is located closer to the vertical stabilizer of an airplane than the front portion of the fuselage.
  7. A system comprising: the airplane of claim 6, wherein the data recording apparatus comprises a first data recording apparatus; and a second data recording apparatus that is different from the first data recording apparatus, wherein each of the first and second data recording apparatuses is further configured to store location data regarding global positioning system, GPS, coordinates of the respective first and second data recording apparatuses; and an electronic device that is configured to obtain the GPS coordinates stored in the respective memories of the first and second data recording apparatuses and determine airplane orientation and integrity based on the obtained GPS coordinates.
  8. A determination method comprising: obtaining, by an electronic device, from a memory of a first data recording apparatus, first global positioning system, GPS, coordinates stored in the memory of the first data recording apparatus; obtaining, by the electronic device, from a memory of a second data recording apparatus, second GPS coordinates stored in the memory of the second data recording apparatus; and based on the obtained first and second GPS coordinates, determining, by the electronic device, orientation and integrity of an airplane to which the first and second data recording apparatuses are attached.
  9. A system comprising: the data recording apparatus of claim 1; and another apparatus, which is an electronic device that is configured to, based on all valid passcodes being entered, decrypt the encrypted at least the portion of the memory where the flight data is stored, the valid passcodes corresponding to each of two or more stakeholders, the two or more stakeholders including two or more of: an airplane manufacturer, an airplane owner, an operator, an insurance company representative or a government aviation administration representative.

Description

BACKGROUND Cross-Reference to Related Application This application claims priority from U.S. Application No. 16/804,659, filed February 28, 2020, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Field This disclosure is directed towards recorders used in airplanes (e.g., flight data recorders, voice recorders, or a combination thereof), which are commonly referred to as a "black box". For example, flight data recorders may record flight data, and voice recorders may record voice data, such as, cockpit voice data. The disclosure is directed towards a data recording apparatus, a data recording system and an airplane orientation and integrity determination method thereof that solves problems existing in the related art. Description of Related Art A Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) and a Flight Data Recorder (FDR) are traditionally two separate physical units used for different purposes. A Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) may record sounds, such as, sounds on a flight deck with an area microphone, usually mounted on an overhead panel of a cockpit. The area microphone may be a sensitive microphone that may capture sound, which may include one or more of: one or more voices, one or more sounds of switches, one or more audible warnings, and/or other cockpit noise. The CVR may also record audio from one or more microphones (e.g., one or more of: a pilot's headset microphone, an oxygen mask microphone or a handheld microphone). Each pilot of a plurality of pilots may have the same or a similar microphone configuration. A Flight Data Recorder (FDR) may record data obtained from Flight Data Acquisition Unit (FDAU). A Flight Data Acquisition Unit (FDAU) is a unit that receives various discrete, analog and digital parameters from a number of sensors and avionic systems and then routes them to Flight Data Recorder (FDR). The FDAU may include a hardware processor. The data may include many different operating conditions of a flight of the airplane. In some jurisdictions (e.g., the United States), the aviation regulations require that newly manufactured aircraft must monitor at least eighty-eight (88) important parameters including time, altitude, airspeed, heading, and aircraft attitude. In addition, some FDRs can record the status of more than a thousand (1,000) other in-flight characteristic parameters that can aid in an investigation (e.g., an investigation into an airplane crash). Due to technological advancement, the functionalities of the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) and Flight Data Recorder (FDR) can be integrated into one physical unit. The one physical unit that includes the CVR and the FDR may be called a Cockpit Voice and Data Recorder (CVDR). The scope of the present disclosure is to provide one physical unit that addresses problems with the CVDR. See, for example, Non-Patent Literature 1. The term "black box" is commonly used to refer to a FDR, a CVR or both. Listing of Related Art Patent Literature 1: "Wang" U.S. Patent No. 9,745,071 ("Ejectable Flight Data Recorder Systems, Methods, and Devices").Patent Literature 2: "Van den Heuvel" U.S. Patent No. 9,296,489 (Flight Recorder Deployment Mechanism).Patent Literature 3: "Kaufmann" U.S. Patent No. 8,880,283 ("Deployable Flight Recorder").Patent Literature 4: "Wang2" U.S. Patent No. 9,975,640 ("Ejectable Flight Data Recorder Systems, Methods, and Devices").Non-Patent Literature 1: "Cockpit Voice Recorders (CVR) and Flight Data Recorders (FDR)"; published by "National Transportation Safety Board" (January 8, 2020). Non-Patent Literature 1 shows a black box that records both cockpit voice data and flight data.Non-Patent Literature 2: "Effect of welding parameters on tensile strength of ultrasonic spot welded joints of aluminum to steel - By experimentation and artificial neural network" Article in Journal of Manufacturing Processes 30:63-74 · December 2017. Non-Patent Literature 2 discloses a study regarding tensile strength of welded joints. Problem(s) to be Solved The present disclosure addresses a multitude of problems associated with black boxes (for aircraft) in the related art, as discussed in more detail below. A black box, which is generally located inside of an airplane, may be partially or completely destroyed in the event of an airplane crash, or, the black box may sink with the airplane into deep water (if the airplane lands/crashes into deep water). In either situation, the data stored in the black box, which is important for crash investigators, may no longer be retrievable. Various methods in the related art have been proposed that provide a method of actively ejecting the black box. For example, Patent Literature 1 (Wang) shows a method and system for ejecting a black box (flight data recorder) in the event that a problem or crash is detected such that the black box is ejected before an airplane crashes. In Wang, a "pre-crash" ejection is designed to preserve the integrity of the black box. However, there are many problems with the design of eje