Progress on Commercializing RFID within Aerospace and Defense. Kenneth D. Porad, Associate Technical Fellow / Program Manager The Boeing Company

Transcription

1 Progress on Commercializing RFID within Aerospace and Defense Kenneth D. Porad, Associate Technical Fellow / Program Manager The Boeing Company

2 Explosion of RFID Applications 10T RFID Applications Exploding Number of RFID devices 1T 1B 1M Number of RFID devices

3 Early Adoption of RFID in Aerospace

4 Great Expectations for RFID

5 Parts Tracking Considerations Line replaceable Repairable Recommended as a spare Frequency of removal Spares price Dispatch criticality Life-limited or time-controlled part Emergency equipment

6 Benefits of Automated Identification Customer and Supplier Benefits reduces inventory control and provisioning costs accurate configuration control and repair history reduces warranty claim processing costs regulatory agency compliance monitoring part installation and removal time tracking accurate and efficient spare parts pooling identification of rogue parts accurate flight hours tracking by part Airframer Benefits reduces parts receiving costs eliminates data entry errors provides accurate as delivered configuration improves parts traceability reduces risk of unapproved parts timely in-service problem resolution accurate and efficient spare parts pooling improves customer satisfaction By working together on these non-competitive standards initiatives, both Boeing and Airbus benefit by avoiding conflicting requirements with mutual suppliers and customers and delivering products and services which create best value.

7 Technology Adoption Cycle (Auto-ID) RFID Hype cycle Inflated Expectations (lots of) Noise Disillusionment True (likely) adoption cycle RFID Bar-code (nuggets of) Actionable knowledge

8 Reader Geographic Mobility Challenge RFID Tags can be designed to respond to all frequencies in this range. 860 MHz 862 MHz Readers are constrained by national regulation to smaller segments of the spectrum. China 869 MHz Europe 915 MHz USA 924 MHz 953 MHz 960 MHz Singapore Japan

9 Commercialization Progress RFID in-service evaluations successfully completed Department of Defense alignment Early adoption of enterprise RFID deployments Hands-on workshops conducted with airline customers Global Aviation RFID Forums completed Regulatory agencies authorized passive RFID usage Standards development on-going leadership

10 RFID Proof of Concept with FedEx Identify potential electromagnetic interference and detrimental environmental effects. Evaluate the integrity of the data (the ability to read and write data to the smart label during each scheduled inspection). Evaluate the integrity of the application (adhesion of the smart label to the part). Allow for the assessment of the concept and suitability for widespread use in the FedEx fleet.

11 FedEx MD-10 N370FE

12 Annunciator Control Unit

13 Flap Limit Duplex Actuator Unit

14 Smoke Detector

15 Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR) Radio and electronic equipment, controls, and wiring must be installed so that operation of any one unit or system of units will not adversely affect the simultaneous operation of any other radio or electronic unit, or system of units... The occurrence of any failure condition which would prevent the continued safe flight and landing of the airplane is extremely improbable, and

16 Boeing Position on Passive RFID Because passive RFID devices: Have no on-tag power source and no active transmitter, and Perform a ground operated, non-essential function, and Are not potential sources of interference or susceptibility and Are FCC-certified for unlicensed use. The FAA and EASA have agreed that passive RFID devices comply with applicable regulations and do not impact form, fit, or function of installed systems and equipment.

17 FAA Policy: RFID Conditions for Use on Civil Aircraft 1. Must operate in the passive only mode. 2. Must not radiate (backscatter) harmonics above a level of 35dBuv/m. 3. The frequency assignment must remain outside of the published aviation frequency bands. 4. Harmonic frequencies do not impinge upon any assigned aviation communication or navigation frequency. 5. Use of passive only devices is restricted to ground operations only. 6. Each item of installed equipment must function properly. 7. Designed to operate in an aircraft environment with robust radio frequency stability.

18 JAL: Current State of Emergency Equipment Checks JAL maintenance technicians access oxygen generators in PSUs, ceiling panels, seats and crew rests. PSUs Ceiling Panels Seats Crew Rests

19 JAL: Current State of Emergency Equipment Checks, cont. Mechanics required to check the expiration date located on the firing pin.

20 JAL: Future State of Emergency Equipment Checks With RFID Dramatic results were achieved. Before 13 labors hours. 6.5 hour cycle time. Full ship-set of inventory managed as just-in-case and located in Haneda. No as-flying configuration management. Checked as OK or NG. Generators replaced 19 months prior to expiration. 20% loss of product life-cycle yield and greater consumption of product. After 8.5 labor minutes 99% reduction 8.5 minutes 98% reduction 80% reduction, forward deployed to line stations and managed as just-in time. All transactions captured in front-end database. As-flying configuration management allows for generator replacement in weeks or days before expiration. 20% recovery of product life-cycle yield, decrease in product consumption.

21 AIT and Data Capture Standards Organizations International International Organization for Standardization (ISO) International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) International Telecommunications Union (ITU) (United Nations) United Postal Union (UPU) (United Nations) EPCglobal ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1 (JTC 1) TC 122 Packaging TC 104 Freight Containers TC 8 Ships & Marine Tech Regional SC 31 Automatic Data Capture WG 1 - Symbology WG 2 - Data Content WG 3 - Conformance WG 4 - RFID WG 5 - RTLS SC 17 IC Cards ITU-T (fka CCITT) Telecommunications ITU-R (fka CCIR & IFBR) Radio-frequency Issues ITU-D (fka BDT) Telecommunications Development Comité Européen Normalisation (CEN) ODETTE ECMA Comité Européen Normalisation Electrotechnique (CENELEC) Comité Européen Postal & Telegraph (CEPT) National Australia (SAA) British (BSI) French (AFNOR) American (ANSI) German (DIN) Japan (JISC) MHI AIM UCC EIA IEEE INCITS Other Industry T6 B10 CompTIA ATA EIA AIA HIBCC AIAG UCC Other SAE VDA

22 Air Transport Association (ATA) An airline trade association chartered to foster global air safety, service, and efficiency within commercial aviation. The ATA creates international technical standards related to commercial aviation engineering and maintenance practices. An ATA task force has defined the mandatory and conditional data elements to be contained on an RFID tag.

23 Examples of ATA Data Elements Part number Serial number Manufacturer Fabricator Date of manufacture Country of origin Modification level Warranty expiration date Weight Part description/nomenclature Lot number Hazardous material code Electrostatic sensitive device indication Shelf life expiration date Software part number Airworthiness certificate tracking number

24 RFID Enterprise Mission Statement Enable and institute standardized RFID systems and processes for all the Technology Domain teams. Replicate best practices through LEAN+ initiatives to reduce unit cost, cycle time, and defects. Guide global, interoperable RFID standards development and protect enterprise intellectual property.

25 Situation Lack of strategic vision for radio frequency identification (RFID) jeopardizes Boeing technical advantage and leadership. The value proposition of deploying these technologies has not been recognized by many decision makers. Limited reduction in unit cost, cycle time and defects have been realized utilizing this technology. Insufficient coordination of technology and application standards has resulted in proprietary and not open systems solutions. Limited integration of early pilot programs has resulted in not effectively sharing lessons learned enterprise-wide. Lack of alignment of Business Unit plans and technology introductions have resulted in conflicting direction to developers.

26 Target Utilize the collective resources of the Boeing enterprise to enable RFID technology through: Coordinating research and development on rapidly evolving technology to protect Boeing Intellectual Property. Creating business cases to evaluate the cost effectiveness of the technology. Promoting technology and application standards within the enterprise to ensure open systems architecture solutions. Leveraging the aggregate demand for automated identification equipment and services in the acquisition process. Communicating lessons learned where the technology has been deployed to reduce technical and schedule risk. Avoiding duplication of effort and associated costs while maintaining continuity. Linking technology roadmaps and time horizons across domains.

27 RFID Technology Development Concept Introduced MHz On-Board Evaluation 915 MHz On-Board Evaluation FAA Policy Memo ATA Spec 2000 Standards AS5678 Released Extended User Memory Devices Available

28 Future RFID Outlook for Aerospace and Defense Purely passive integrated circuit designs will provide extended user memory beyond 64 kilobits. Data transfer rates will increase dramatically and reach Megabytes per second. Innovative antenna designs will increase range and performance. Active tags incorporating onboard wireless sensor networks will proliferate aerospace products. Prices for commercially available off-the-shelf readers will decrease due to economies of scale.