Objective
Computer Aided Design (CAD) systems have paved the way, in the past twenty years, for cost reductions in aircraft design; new cost reductions are foreseeable from an extension of the CAD capabilities. In the specific case of the electrical distribution of power supply on an aircraft, the CAD systems generate wiring plans. Then, the electrical harness is designed from the wiring plans. A new step forward needs to be accomplished in order to automatically design and optimise the harness itself; this is the expected technical achievement of the FRESH project. The technical research goal of the FRESH project is to focus on new technologies acquisition in order to convert automatically wiring plans into harness simulation. The project addresses not only CAD designed aircraft but old aircraft as well. For not-CAD designed aircraft, a part of the proposed research will focus on methods to automatically capture paper plans and transfer them in a numerical form, CAD like. Doing so, the whole fleet of aircraft is taken into account. Large manufacturers have expressed interest in the FRESH system. They are expecting electrical harness optimisation capabilities, cost reductionin industrialisation and cost reduction in modification design and validation SMEs have as well expressed interest in the progress expected from FRESH. The most concerned ones are those working in the aircraft maintenance sector. The expected benefits are 1)fault free recapture of wirings diagrams, 2) significant reduction of wasted time, 50% is our target, 3) error free intervention (in order to avoid extra-costs in overhauling). The FRESH expected project aims at increasing the productivity of the design and maintenance teams in charge of the design and maintenance teams in charge of the harness by a global 15%. The aircraft safety will be kept up without over costs thanks to the strict verification and validation carried out by the simulation (no reengineering iteration).
Fields of science
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencessoftware
- engineering and technologymechanical engineeringvehicle engineeringaerospace engineeringaircraft
- social scienceseconomics and businesseconomicsproduction economicsproductivity
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesartificial intelligenceheuristic programming
Call for proposal
FP6-2003-AERO-1
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