EP0144226A2
Expired / Lapsed
EP
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Method and apparatus for detecting control system data processing errorsof an aircraft flight guidance system.
Assignee: Hughes Flight Dynamics Inc Te Culver City Calif
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Filing: 1984-11-30
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2004-11-30
Abstract
Abstract A method and apparatus for detecting control system data processing errors are described. The apparatus comprises two input buffers (12 and 14) for receiving system input data such as information about the condition of an aircraft. A first processing means of the apparatus includes a control law processor (18) which compares the signals input to the two input buffers (12 and 14) to determine whether either of those inputs is in error. The control law processor (18) having determined that the input data is not in error performs a first predetermined operational function on the data. A system monitor processor (26) is provided to perform a second operational function on data output from the control law processor. The second operational function is preferably the inverse of the first operational function. The data derived by the system monitor processor (26) by performing the second operational function thereon is compared with the input data to determine whether they differ by a predetermined tolerance enabling, in particular, latent software errors which are unique to a particular computer program to be detected. The processing system also includes a display apparatus (36, 50, 52) which develops from the output information of the control law processor (18) a set of display symbols that convey the information on a monitor screen to, for example, the pilot of an aircraft. An identifying tag is assigned to each display symbol to identify in a real time a display symbol that conveys erroneous information.
Inventors
- 👤 John P. Desmond
- 👤 Douglas W. Ford
- 👤 Michael E. Fossey
- 👤 Michael Stanbro
- 👤 Kenneth A. Zimmerman
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-10-29 15:49
CPC Classifications
G; G06; G06F; G06F11/00; G06F11/07; G06F11/16; G06F11/1629; G06F11/1637; G06F11/30; G06F11/32; G06F11/324; G06F11/328; G06F11/321
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 14
Claim 1
Independent Claim
86 words
I. Control data processing apparatus, comprising: first digital processing means for receiving input information and for processing the input information in accordance with a first operational function to develop output information; second digital processing means receiving information from the first digital processing means for computing a derived version of the input information in accordance with a second operational function; and comparison means for comparing the actual input information with the derived version of the input information to determine whether they differ within a preassigned operational tolerance.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
21 words
Apparatus according to Claim I, in which the second operational function corresponds to an inverse function of the first operational function.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
81 words
Apparatus according to Claim I or 2, in which the first digital processing means comprises: digital computing means for developing the output information and representing the output information in a first format; and conditioning means for receiving the output information represented in the first format and representing the output information in a second format, the second processing means being arranged to receive the information represented in the second format as a parameter in computing the derived version of the input information.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
57 words
Apparatus according to Claim i, 2 or 3, which further comprises identifying means for assigning to a predetermined one of the output information an identifying tag which is utilized by the second processing means to identify the predetermined one of the output information which figures in a difference computation that is not within the preassigned operational tolerance.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
61 words
Apparatus according to any preceding claim, in which the input information defines elements of an input vector and the output information defines elements of a solution vector so that the first operational function includes a matrix of the transformation of the input vector into the solution vector, the second operational function including the inverse matrix of the matrix of the transformation.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
139 words
Control data processing apparatus, comprising: first digital processing means for receiving input information and for processing the input information in accordance with a first operational function to develop output information, the first digital processing means including identifying means for assigning an identifying tag to at least one of the output information; second digital processing means for computing in accordance with a second operational function a derived version of the input information, the second digital processing means being arranged to operate asynchronously to the first digital processing means and to communicate with the first digital processing means to receive information corresponding to the output information and identified by the identifying tag; and comparison means for comparing the actual input information with the derived version of the input information to determine whether they differ by more than a preassigned operational tolerance.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
161 words
In a control display system including processing means for receiving input information and for processing the input information in accordance with a first operational function to develop output information and display symbol generating means to provide for visual display of a symbol corresponding to the output information, a method for detecting display symbol errors comprising: assigning an identifying tag to control display system information corresponding to the output information to identify the display symbol; processing the output information in accordance with a second operational function to compute a derived version of the input information; comparing the actual input information with the derived version of the input information to determine whether they differ within a preassigned operational tolerance; acknowledging the existence of a display symbol error whenever the difference between the actual input information and the derived version of the input information exceeds the preassigned operational tolerance; and identifying the display symbol in error by means of the identifying tag corresponding thereto.
Claim 8
Independent Claim
90 words
A method for detecting display symbol errors in an information display system comprising processing means for processing display information, the processing means including a display symbol generating means for generating a display symbol to convey the display information, the method comprising the sequential steps of: applying an identifying tag to the display information; determining whether an error was introduced during the processing of the display information; and acknowledging with reference to the identifying tag the existence of an error, if any, in the display symbol corresponding to the display information.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
21 words
A method according to Claim 7 or 8, which further comprises inhibiting a visual display of the display symbol in error.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
21 words
A method according to Claim 7, 8 or 9, in which the identifying tag is assigned within the display generating means.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
85 words
In a control system including means for providing input information to the system and digital processing means for processing the input information in accordance with a first operational function to provide output information, a processing error detection method comprising: processing the output information in accordance with a second operational function to provide a derived version of the input information; and comparing the derived version of the input information with the actual input information to determine whether they differ by more than a predetermined operational tolerance.
Claim 12
Independent Claim
84 words
A method according to Claim I which further comprises: assigning a different identifying tag to each of at least some of the output information, and applying the identifying tag to the ones of the output information prior to processing the output information in accordance with the second operational function, thereby to identify the derived version of the input signal information as that which corresponds to the actual input signal information which figured in the development of the output information having the same identifying tag.
Claim 13
Independent Claim
26 words
A method according to any one of Claims 7 to 12, in which the second operational function represents the inverse function of the first operational function.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
57 words
A method according to Claim 13, in which the input information defines an input vector and the output information defines a solution vector so that the first operational function defines a matrix of the transformation of the input vector into the solution vector, the second operational function defining the inverse matrix of the matrix of the transformation.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
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