GB2465674A

GB2465674A - Device and Method for Remote Maintenance and/or Training

Info

Publication number: GB2465674A
Application number: GB0920631A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Gerhard Fresser; Reinhold Ziegler
Original assignee: LFK Lenkflugkoerpersysteme GmbH
Current assignee: LFK Lenkflugkoerpersysteme GmbH
Priority date: 2008-11-27
Filing date: 2009-11-25
Publication date: 2010-06-02
Anticipated expiration: 2029-11-25
Also published as: ITMI20091932A1; DE102008059339A1; FR2938955A1; IT1397177B1; GB0920631D0; GB2465674B

Abstract

A device 1 for the remote maintenance and/or repair of technical systems 6, installations and/or remote training, uses a controlled laser pointer system. The controlled laser pointer, preferably uses inbuilt or remotely supplied instructions, indicates by projecting a laser beam 4 steps to be taken by a local operator. The device may further include a remote diagnostics system communicating with said device and an interface 3 to transmit a fault code. The device further includes a tracking element 7 to identify the technical system and for use in calibrating.

Description

Device and method for remote maintenance and/or training The invention relates to a device and also to a method for the remote maintenance and/or remote corrective maintenance of, and/or remote training for, technical systems.

The instruction of qualified specialist personnel for the maintenance and/or corrective maintenance or repair of technical systems of every kind is taking more and more time on account of the complexity of the technical systems, and also represents an ever greater cost factor. It is precisely as a result of technical change that nowadays technical systems of every kind are being developed further in an ever shorter time and are thus becoming more complex so that nowadays corresponding training can hardly be carried out with conventional means any longer.

Added to this, furthermore, is the fact that the distances between the location of a technical unit and the station of technical personnel for the maintenance and/or corrective maintenance and training also lie increasingly further apart. Thus it is possible, for example, for a unit to be produced in one country, yet to be used at another location, several thousand kilometres away.

Whilst maintenance and repair centres are available in part for such uses nowadays, these centres are not likely to be available at those locations at which a given technical unit has become defective. Moreover, it is difficult to observe specific time intervals in the case of maintenance on account of globalization, since corresponding technical units then need to be taken to a specific location on the Earth.

Added to this, furthermore, is the fact that corresponding places for instruction need to be commissioned as well at various locations for the instruction of corresponding service personnel so the personnel have to travel to these locations. Moreover, on account of the fact that the technical systems are becoming constantly more complicated operators' handbooks or service handbooks presented in paper form are linked with a large cost factor and, moreover, have to be translated into a number of languages.

Nowadays, laser pointers are employed in teaching, these being used as light pointers, in particular for lectures with projection. It is not necessary for such laser-pointer equipment to have very high beam quality and other properties with high demands, which is why laser diodes are chiefly applied here. The laser diodes can be realized in a great variety of colours, such as red, green, orange to yellow and also blue, and even so as to be fluorescent. The shorter the wavelength, the greater is the diffusion of the light in the air.

An adjusting device that uses a laser device for the mutual positioning of two tool plates that lie opposite each other in parallel has thus become known from DE 20 2008 001 975 U'.

Furthermore, measuring devices for force and angle changes in conjunction with a laser can be inferred, for example, from DE 20 2006 005 565 Ui.

An object of the invention is to lower the cost of remote maintenance and/or remote corrective maintenance and/or remote training.

In accordance with the invention it is proposed that a controlled laser pointer system be used in order to support remote maintenance and corrective-maintenance work or even for instruction and training. Such a controlled laser pointer system allows the points and/or modules or objects that are to be processed to be identified or even repaired at the correct point, in the correct sequence and without special knowledge. In the same measure it is possible to carry out corresponding training without prior knowledge by the person carrying out the work. Thus it is also possible for this corresponding maintenance and/or corrective-maintenance work or even training to be able to be effected at remote points on the Earth by personnel who have had little instruction. The whole system can be supported, for example, by an expert who controls the laser pointer system himself. As a result, enormous savings in terms of instruction are available to the customer worldwide without any time lag, and substantially lower costs are incurred for maintenance personnel.

Such a controlled laser pointer system in conjunction with a remote diagnostics system can be used, for example, as a self-sufficient local unit. A link to a further information source is, however, also possible. The further information source can, for example, be by way of a computer in which the technical systems that are to be maintained and/or correctively maintained or trained in the form of units are stored as data files. When employed by an expert it is, moreover, also possible to effect corresponding support here through speech and the employment of videos or interactive electronic documentation.

Such a controlled laser pointer system preferably substantially consists of a computer, a laser pointer module, a cable connection to the system to be maintained or repaired and by way of a link by way of an interface which is possible through cables or radio or the like.

Data relating to the technical systems that are to be processed are stored within memories or memory media. The system that is to be correctively maintained recognizes the disturbance that has occurred, for example, by means of a diagnostics system. From this a corresponding fault code is generated that is relayed to the controlled laser pointer system. The laser pointer system invokes corresponding programs for this and subsequently guides the person to carry out corrective maintenance of the fault in individual steps. Corresponding information is used for this either from the memories present in situ or simply even worldwide by way of a central data bank. This differs depending on the mode or even the equipment of a laser pointer system controlled in such a way.

The laser pointer system can, for example, also identify an automatic recognition of the technical system to be processed by means of corresponding information. This can be input in the laser pointer system automatically or even manually. After the corresponding technical system has been identified, calibration of the laser pointer system set up remotely from the technical system is carried out automatically.

After the calibration has taken place, the laser pointer system guides the person in accordance with the work that is to be effected in individual steps to the effect that afterwards the system is fully functional again. Thus, for example, in the case of a defective unit the steps that are individually required at a defective system are specified to the person carrying out the corrective maintenance by means of the laser beam. After each individual step, the laser pointer system automatically establishes that the step that has been indicated has been effected and goes automatically or can even be guided on by means of manual operation to the next work step that follows. Thus the laser pointer system can contain a tracking system which by means of various image-processing methods recognizes at what point of the technical system it is located and then by means of a guided laser beam indicates the work positions that are required in each case at the defective system, relative to the corresponding activities that are required.

Such a controlled laser pointer system is efficient and inexpensive to employ, since it can be employed not only for maintenance and/or corrective maintenance, but also for training purposes. It is precisely in the case of remote training by way of such a laser pointer system that the persons working in situ with the laser pointer system who need not have received high levels of technical instruction become accustomed to the system quite early on so that rapid repairs or maintenance work can be carried out without the technical system having to be taken to a specialist It is shown that such a controlled laser pointer system can be employed in an efficient way for all technical fields, both in daily use, for example in the case of motor-car repairs or telecommunications equipment, or in complicated technical systems or even in the field of aeronautics in the case of engines or the like, or in the military field.

An embodiment of the invention will now be explained in greater detail with the aid of the attached drawings, in which: Figure 1 shows a technical unit with a controlled laser pointer system; Figure 2 shows a second work step by specification of the laser pointer system; Figure 3 shows the same as Figure 2, but in a further Figure 4 shows the employment of a controlled laser pointer system with the employment of an external expert.

In Figure 1 a laser pointer system has been provided with the reference numeral 1. This laser pointer system is shown only as a complete system in Figure 1 and not in detail.

Such a laser pointer system 1 can, for example, be set up on a stand in front of a technical system 6 so that alignment, for example, with a recognition mark 7 in the form of a calibration is effected by way of the laser point system 1.

By means of the calibration at the same time as well recognition of the technical system 6 is carried out. After the technical system 6 has been recognized and identified, the corresponding software for this technical unit is made available within the laser pointer system. In the steps which follow, it is then automatically pointed out to the operator in individual steps which work operations are to be effected. In Figure 1, this is the removal of a covering hood, for example, for which purpose the housing screw connections 8 have to be undone.

In Figure 2 the cover 10 has been removed from the technical system 6 so that the individual modules behind the cover 10 become visible.

The laser pointer system 1 then guides the laser beam 4, for example, to an assembly 11 which has to be examined on the basis of a service interval. The individual steps that are necessary in order to examine this module 11 are then specified by the laser pointer system so that no error by the operating personnel can arise, because an acknowledgement is required after each work step. Moreover, the laser beam 4 also recognizes whether corresponding work has been effected at the module 11, for example.

In Figure 3, for example, in a further step an assembly 9 that then has to be examined after the module 11 is identified by the laser beam 4. It is, however, also conceivable that no detailed repairs or corrective maintenance take/takes place, but that, for example, whole assemblies 9 or 11 simply need to be exchanged, because the laser pointer system in conjunction with a remote diagnostics system has ascertained a fault within this assembly or such an assembly has to be subjected to an external service after a specific running time. For this as well the laser pointer system can then be applied in a corresponding manner, for which purpose, though, a new calibration for this individual module must take place.

The embodiment of Figure 4 shows that support for the person active in situ can also take place in conjunction with an expert, who is resident far away, by way of a computer, for example. The laser pointer system 1 receives the corresponding data by means of an antenna 2 and relays the data by means of the memories or memory media present in the laser pointer system by way of the laser beam 4 to the technical system 6.

In the same measure, it is also possible for the laser pointer system 1 to relay corresponding information to the computer 5 by way of an interface 3 in conjunction with a cable or even by way of the antenna 2.

The invention is thus seen to concern a device and method for the remote maintenance and/or repair or corrective maintenance of technical systems of various kinds, and/or for remote training, using a controlled laser pointer system. The controlled laser pointer, using inbuilt or remotely supplied instructions, indicates steps to be taken, modules to be exchanged, and so forth, by pointing at relevant parts of the apparatus to be repaired, and can also be used in automatically identifying the apparatus.

List of reference numerals 1 Laser pointer system 2 Antenna 3 Interface 4 Laser beam Computer 6 Technical system 7 Recognition mark 8 Housing screw connection 9 Assembly Cover 11 Assembly