Portable Maintenance Aide
l Applied Mechanics Mechanical Design Information Systems Reliability and Human Engineering Electronic Systems Applied Systems Logistics Services
© 1987-2012 Mercer Engineering Research Center 135 Osigian Blvd. • Warner Robins, GA 31088info@merc-mercer.org • www.merc-mercer.org • 478.953.6800The system provides methods for easy and accurate data collection through the implementation of a photographic system with annotation capabilities and through a 3D model viewer developed by MERC that provides drill-down, graphical data entry, and automated data field population.The portable maintenance aide application provides for the collection of highly structured data that can be easily analyzed by automated methods in a way that makes the collection of the data as automated and simple as possible. The goal is to produce high quality condition data useful for analysis by engineering, maintenance, and logistics personnel without increasing the overall workload of the inspectors and maintainers being asked to collect the information.The portable maintenance aide supports a variety of portable computing system architectures including traditional laptop computers, tablet PCs, slate format PCs, and handheld/PDA formats. Current implementation uses a lightweight tablet PC originally designed for the medical field. The application provides for rapid and easy collection of structured data about aircraft condition and maintenance actions performed. The application has the ability to sense the availability of a wireless network connection and will transfer data to a master server whenever the connection is available. In the absence of a live network connection, collected data is stored locally for later upload. Information Systems DivisionMERC’s Information Systems Division has developed a portable maintenance aide software application for use as a data collection methodology test bed for refining on-site data collection techniques and methods. The tool is currently being used to collect inspection and maintenance data on C-130 aircraft undergoing depot-level maintenance and repair at Warner Robins Air Logistics Center. The data collected is used to evaluate overall aircraft structural condition both before and after the depot maintenance actions and is being fed into analysis and prognostication tools being developed at MERC for performing condition-based maintenance on the aircraft.