Study on Application of Internet of Things Technology in the Aviation Equipment
Maintenance Safety Management
Da-xin Sun1, Xiao-kun Wang2, Yong-yu Liu3, Cheng-xiang Liu2, Guang-sen Zhou1
1 Training Department of Air Force Aviation University, Changchun, China
2 Aeronautical and Mechanical Engineering Department of Air Force Aviation University, Changchun, China
3 Flight Simulation Training Center of Air Force Aviation University, Changchun, China
(sdx58964@gmail.com)
Abstract - The article researches and analyses the
Internet of Things and aviation equipment maintenance
security management, and attempts introduction the
Internet of Things technology to aviation equipment
maintenance security management to achieve both barrierfree management of maintenance personnel and tracking
and positioning management of maintenance tool. This
attempt has an important significance upon accelerating up
the process of information of aviation equipment
maintenance safety management and enhancing the
management efficiency of aviation equipment maintenance
safety management.
Keywords - Internet of Things technology, IT, aviation
equipment, maintenance safety, safety management
I. INTRODUCTION
New information warfare style and substantial
increase of the degree of equipment of the information put
forward urgent requirements of the aviation equipment
maintenance safety management enter a new stage of
development ——the aviation equipment maintenance
safety information management stage[1]. Internet of
Things technology as a combination of sensor technology,
communications technology and computer technology is
one of the most important information technology of the
21st century. Internet of Things technology is considered
to be the third information technology and information
revolution after the computer development and Internet
universal application, which has important applications in
the military. This paper will be based on Internet of things
military applications and attempt introduction of Internet
of Things technology into aviation equipment
maintenance and support and safety management system,
in order to effectively enhance aviation equipment
maintenance safety management performance.
II. OVERVIEW of the INTERNET of THINGS
TECHNOLOGY and AVIATION EQUIPMENT
MAINTENANCE SAFETY MANAGEMENT
Concepts and advanced information technology of the
Internet of Things, has been quickly used to perception
and control a variety of combat supplies in the field of
military logistical support in developed countries to meet
the requirements of modern warfare on logistical
precision protection. Aviation equipment maintenance is
an important area of military logistical support, there are
many factors affect the safety of aviation equipment
maintenance. There are still many weak links in aviation
equipment maintenance safety management. However, the
information technology wave of the Internet of Things
brings opportunity for the aviation equipment
maintenance safety management change from the
traditional extensive management to intensive and
meticulous management.
A. Internet of Things technology and aviation equipment
maintenance safety management
1) An Internet of Things and its key technologies: There
is no uniform standard definition on the Internet of Things
currently. General, the Internet of Things is look like a
huge network combining the various information sensing
devices and the Internet. Specifically, the Internet of
Things is seen as a network, which can intelligent
identify, locate, track, monitor and manage any items
connected to the Internet, and exchange information and
communicate according to the agreed protocol through
radio frequency identification (RFID), infrared sensors,
global positioning systems, laser scanners, and other
information sensing device.[2]
The Internet of Things has the characteristics of the
Internet, but finer, stronger and more comprehensive than
the Internet in functionality according to the definition of
Internet of Things. Sensor technology, communication
technology and computer technology as the three
foundation of modern information technology complete
the information collection, transmission and processing
respectively. The Internet of things combined the three
techniques together to achieve real unity of the
information collection, transmission and processing.
Therefore, the Internet of Things is considered as one of
the most important technologies of the 21st century, it
would have a profound impact on the future humanity
lifestyle.
A lot of technology involved in the Internet of Things,
including perception technology,
communication
technology, network technology, found with search
engines technology, data processing technology, network
management technology, etc. The RFID technology,
communication technology and network convergence
technologies, sensor technology and intelligent
information processing technology are recognized as the
four key technologies of the Internet of Things, in which ,
the RFID technology is used for object identification, the
sensor technology is responsible for perception of the
object dynamic information, the communication
technology and network convergence technologies is used
for information transmission, the intelligent information
processing technology is for information processing.[3]
2) Aviation equipment maintenance and Aviation
equipment maintenance safety management: With the
rapid development of science and technology and military
aircraft widely used in the military area, aviation
equipment is increasingly sophisticated and complex,
becoming increasingly dependent on maintenance.
Aviation equipment maintenance capacity has become an
important part of the Air Force combat effectiveness of
troops. Aviation equipment maintenance as the primary
task of aviation equipment operations and training is to
quickly maintain and restore the good and available state
of aviation equipment in accordance with the
requirements, content and procedures at any time under
any circumstances, in order to meet the military
operations and training needs.
Aviation equipment maintenance safety management
is the management activities conducted by the aviation
maintenance system in order to ensure the flight safety
and aviation maintenance operations safety. [4]Aviation
equipment maintenance safety management is one of the
main content of the aviation equipment maintenance
management, which has great significance in ensuring the
combat training tasks carry out smoothly.
From a functional point of view, the main content of
the Air Force aviation equipment maintenance safety
management includes nine aspects: the planning of safety
work, the processing of quality and safety information,
safety supervision and inspection, air and ground
accidents (incidents) investigation, security situation
monitoring, accident prevention macro decision-making,
security education and training, safety legislation and
safety research. [5]
3) Aviation equipment maintenance safety management
based on the Internet of Things: Aviation equipment
maintenance safety management based on the Internet of
Things is to use the Internet of Things technology for
aviation equipment maintenance safety scientific and
informational management integrated a variety of IT will
play an important role in the safety management of the
maintenance of aviation equipment. The transmission of
information between the subject and the subject, the
subject and the object, the object and the object through
the Internet of Things, which can assist management body
in decision-making, planning, organization, coordination
and control.
Equipment connected to the Internet of Things has
four basic characteristics, which are address identification,
perception, communication and controllability. Address
identification shows information of equipment name,
address identifies location, etc. The perception
characteristic is to refer the equipment capacity of
perception
of
environmental.
Communication
characteristic refers to the equipment capacity of
conveying the information accurately. Controllability
means that the equipment is under the managers’ control.
All of these will be beneficial to establish a total system
and entire life cycle scientific management of the aviation
equipment maintenance. [6]
B. The necessity and feasibility of the safety management
of aviation equipment maintenance based on the Internet
of Things technology
1) The necessity: It is necessary to adopt advanced
information technology tools, Internet of Things
technology in aviation equipment maintenance safety
management. The Internet of Things technology will
speed up the process of information and optimize the
management efficiency of the aviation equipment
maintenance safety management.
In the first, identification of aviation equipment
maintenance personnel and material, online tracking and
visual management can be achieved with the help of
advanced Internet of Things technology by means of the
non-contact radio frequency identification, wireless data
transmission and Internet information sharing. It will be
conductive to improve the process of safety management
of all aviation maintenance activities of various time,
space and aspects, in order to reduce the accidents and
incidents endangering the security to a minimum, thereby
effectively reduces the aviation equipment failure rate and
the rate of accidents.
In the second, with the continuous improvement of the
level of aviation equipment information, intelligence and
integration the factors that affect the safety of aviation
equipment maintenance become more and more and tends
to more complicate, and higher requirement to the
aviation equipment maintenance safety management is
put forward. The integration of human society and the
physical system can be achieved by Internet of Things
technology to manage the production and living in a more
refined and dynamic way. Therefore, leveraging on the
Internet of Things technology, aviation equipment
maintenance security management procedures can be
optimized in order to improve the deployment and use of
human, financial, material and information of aviation
equipment maintenance security management procedures,
and to promote the integration of aviation equipment
maintenance , support and combat training operations, so
as to enhance the overall efficiency of the safety
management of aviation equipment maintenance.
2) The feasibility: First, the characteristics of the Internet
of Things determine that it can be used to secure the
scientific management of the aviation equipment
maintenance. Internet of Things is a internet that can not
only achieve automatic and intelligent information
collection, transmission, processing and connections
between objects and objects through a variety of sensing
equipment and Internet, but also can implement anytime,
anywhere scientific management.
The Internet of Things has the characteristics
including networking, joint property, the Internet,
automation, sensing, intelligence, etc. Aviation equipment
maintenance safety management system based on Internet
of Things technology enabling a variety of manpower,
resources, funding, information, time and other factors
that aviation equipment maintenance required managed
independently and rapidly, hence shorten the cycle of
perception, positioning, decision and action to meet the
coordination, fast and sensitive requirements to aviation
equipment support system from modern Air Force combat
and training.
Second, the Internet of Things technology is ideally
suited for the construction and implementation of safety
management of aviation equipment maintenance. There
are many uncertain factors affecting the aviation
equipment maintenance, such as battlefield environment,
equipment condition, maintenance resources, technical
level of personnel, etc. These factors are diverse and
complex. However, the structure and system based on the
Internet of Things has the structured characteristics of
network and nonlinear with the capacity of strong antijamming and anti-attack. These characteristics ensure the
realization of every aspects and each elements of aviation
combat equipment and aviation equipment support,
throughout the entire life-cycle process from test,
production, use, maintenance until to final abandonment
that aviation safety-related can be managed and monitored
effectively through the Internet of Things, and thus will
greatly expand the time, airspace and frequency domain
of the safety management, and bring the aviation
equipment maintenance safety from in control to under
control. [7]
III. The APPLICATION of the INTERNET of THINGS
TECHNOLOGY in SAFETY MANAGEMENT of the
AVIATION EQUIPMENT MAINTENANCE
This paper attempts to use Internet of Things
technology in the personnel and maintenance tools
management of the aviation equipment maintenance
safety management.
A. Barrier-free management of the maintenance personnel
in the aviation equipment maintenance operation area
1) Overview of the Barrier-free personnel management
system: Staff Barrier-free tracking and management
system as a personnel management tool developed with
the development of the modern radio frequency
identification (RFID) technology, which is one of the key
technologies of the Internet of Things. The so-called free
tracking and management can identify and track a staff or
a team entering into the recognition region without any
code of conduct and constraints of him or them to achieve
the management objective. The tracking and recognition
is well-intentioned with the staff or the team knowing the
existence of it.
2) Barrier-free maintenance personnel management in the
aviation equipment maintenance operation area: Aviation
equipment maintenance operation areas include not only
the maintenance work areas for the maintenance staff
carrying out maintenance operations but also the
maintenance supplies and reserve areas for storing
maintenance spare parts, accessories and maintenance
tools.
There are the overlap of the maintenance work area
and the complex alternation of the maintenance personnel
because some maintenance tasks require different
maintenance staff shifts to complete and some
maintenance jobs require different maintenance staff
alternately to complete, and it makes the aviation
maintenance safety management risk factors greatly
increase in the spatial domain and time domain. So the
personnel barrier-free tracking and management system
which is based on Internet of Things automatic
identification can be adopted to effectively monitoring
maintenance
operations
and
enhance
aviation
maintenance safety management performance.
3) The barrier-free management system of the
maintenance personnel in the aviation equipment
maintenance
operation
area:
The
barrier-free
management system of the maintenance personnel in the
aviation equipment maintenance operation area is based
on the front of the RFID data acquisition system,
middleware, data transmission network, computer system,
automatic control and display system, image acquisition
and processing system, the background software platform
and RFID data system. The system architecture is shown
as Fig. 1.
Personnel(Label)
RFID Reader
Data transmission
network
Center management
system
Fig. 1 Accessibility management system chart of maintenance staff in
the aviation equipment maintenance operation area
The center management system includes RFID
acquisition system, image acquisition and processing
system, display and operating system, document
management and accreditation systems, central
monitoring system, a central database, communication
network system, homework online system, personnel
positioning system, staff attendance system, inquiry
statistics system. The system block diagram is shown in
Fig. 2.
Image acquisition and processing system
Display and operating system
Display and operating system
Document management and accreditation
system
Central monitoring system
Center management system
Central database
Communication network system
Homework online system
Personnel positioning system
Staff attendance system
Inquiry statistics system
Fig. 2 Center management system block diagram of staff accessibility
management system
Real-time monitoring and management of the staff in
the aviation equipment maintenance area can be achieved
through the system. It can dynamically monitor the staff
deployment and the progress of the maintenance work,
thereby effectively reduces the safety management risk
caused by regulatory negligence of personnel and the staff
being diverted to the risk area.[8]
B. Tracking and positioning management of aviation
equipment maintenance operation tools
1) Overview of the tracking and positioning management
system: The tracking and positioning management system
is an automatic identification of information system which
is a comprehensive application of automatic control
technology, radio frequency identification technology,
network communications technology, etc. An automated
management of the targets can be realized by means of
non-contact information acquisition and processing of
long-distance moving or stationary targets including
people, vehicles and objects.
2) The tracking and positioning management of aviation
equipment maintenance tools: The custody, using and
tracking of the tools and equipment are important local
factors to increase or reduce maintenance error probability.
[9]
Variety and type of the aviation equipment maintenance
tools are numerous. The accidents caused by tools
forgotten in the aviation equipment occur frequently,
because that the tools hidden in the aircraft skin or cover
are difficult to be identified. Therefore, it is essential to
adopt tracking and positioning management to the
maintenance tools, which is an effectively method to
avoid such kind of accidents caused by tools forgotten.
The Internet of Things technology can be applied to
manage the maintenance tools by tracking and positioning.
3) The tracking and positioning management system of
the aviation equipment maintenance tools: The passive
RFID tags as a unique identification label can be installed
in the operating tools. The label information includes
names, models, specifications and origin, etc. which can
be used as distinction between tools and to develop the
management rules of maintenance tools. The tags of the
tools carried by the maintenance staff will be read before
they enter into the maintenance operation area, then the
tracking and positioning management system will records
the information of both the tools and the tools carrier. The
maintenance staff has to make their tools tags read again
after their maintenance operation, and then they can
remove their tools from the operation venue. The tracking
and positioning management system will compare the
current reading records and the former recording
information. If there are differences show the tools
missing the system will send an alert and promote the
maintenance staff to collect the tools carefully until the
current record is consistent with the before. The system
also has the function of the tools carrier information
hinting, which can provides clues for tracking the missing
tools. The block diagram of the aviation equipment
maintenance tools tracking and positioning management
system is shown in Fig. 3. In addition, the system can
exchange data with the maintenance personnel barrierfree management system, which can help to determine the
location of the tools may be left and reduce the
investigation time.[10]
Reader
Host computer
Data server
Internet
Monitoring center
Fig. 3 The aviation equipment maintenance tools tracking and
positioning management system block diagram
IV. CONCLUSION
The Internet of Things is seen as non-proven reserves
of gold by many military experts. In fact, the Internet of
Things has so many functions such as intelligent
recognition of things function, intelligent monitoring
function, location tracking function, etc. that it can be
used in the fields of battlefield environment monitoring,
target tracking and positioning, weapons and equipment
intelligent,
personnel and vehicles monitoring and
logistical support. It is of great significance in ensuring
the maintenance of security, consolidating and upgrading
the combat effectiveness of Air Force units and ensuring
the Air Force combat training tasks with the in-depth
application of the new security management techniques,
methods and means.
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