Aircraft wiring layout verification system

A method for verifying routing of a number of transport elements, the method comprising:

• receiving a selection of a critical function required by a number of rules to provide continued safe flight and landing when certain undesired events occur;
• in response to the selection of the critical function, determining a number of systems and a number of transport elements associated with the critical function;
• after determining the number of systems and the number of transport elements associated with the critical function, identifying a number of pathways in a vehicle for the number of transport elements using a preferred systems layout;
• displaying, via a number of processors, the number of pathways as a volume in a vehicle for a desired routing of the number of transport elements, wherein a preferred systems layout for the vehicle defines the volume displayed in the vehicle;
• determining whether a designed routing of the number of transport elements in a design of the vehicle is within the number of pathways through the volume for the desired routing of the number of transport elements;
• and
• identifying the number of transport elements associated with the critical function as having the desired routing in the design in response to a determination that the designed routing is within the number of pathways through the volume;
• wherein the volume is one in which equipment and the transport elements are placed such that the transport elements include a level of redundancy and such that the transport elements for the equipment pass through different ones of the number of pathways.

An apparatus comprising:

• a number of processors;
• a display configured to
• display, via the number of processors, a number of pathways as a volume in an aircraft for a desired routing of a number of signal lines, wherein a preferred systems layout for the aircraft defines the volume displayed in the aircraft;
• and
• a verifier configured to:
• receive a selection of a critical function required by a number of rules to provide continued safe flight and landing when certain undesired events occur;
• in response to the selection of the critical function, determine a number of systems and the number of signal lines associated with the critical function;
• after determining the number of systems and the number of signal lines associated with the critical function, identify the number of pathways in the aircraft for the number of signal lines using a preferred systems layout;
• determine whether a designed routing of the number of signal lines in a design of the aircraft is within the number of pathways through the volume for the desired routing of the number of signal lines;
• and
• identify the number of signal lines associated with the critical function as having the desired routing in the design in response to a determination that the designed routing is within the number of pathways through the volume;
• wherein the volume is one in which equipment and the signal lines are placed such that the signal lines include a level of redundancy and such that the signal lines for the equipment pass through different ones of the number of pathways.

A method comprising:

• identifying an aircraft based on an entry of a model of the aircraft and a selection of the aircraft from a list;
• identifying systems in the aircraft from physical data about the aircraft that describe the aircraft as designed and as manufactured;
• identifying critical functions for each system that are required by rules, the critical functions defined as needed for continued safe flight and landing of the aircraft
• wherein the systems that include critical functions are identified from a preferred systems layout;
• after identifying the critical functions, displaying a list of systems with critical functions on a display system;
• wherein the rules define requirements for desired operation of aircraft, do not define placement of the systems and routing of transport elements in the aircraft, define what is required from systems and transport elements to provide desired operation of the aircraft in response to an undesired event, and define requirements for the systems and transport elements for other types of desired operation that are not in response to an undesired event;
• wherein the rules include government regulations, client performance specifications, and manufacturing rules based on customer preferences;
• wherein the government regulations are from a government entity and define rules for a manner in which the systems and the transport elements form to meet a desired level of operation such as continued safe flight and landing when certain undesired events occur;
• wherein the customer preferences include a level of redundancy in transport elements so as to have transport elements for a same system pass through different pathways through different volumes in the aircraft;
• after displaying the list of systems with critical functions, receiving a selection of a critical function;
• in response to the selection of the critical function, identifying a number of systems and a number of transport elements associated with the critical function;
• after identifying the number of systems and the number of transport elements associated with the critical function,
• identifying a number of pathways through a volume in the aircraft for the number of transport elements using a preferred systems layout, and
• identifying a designed routing of the number of transport elements in the aircraft from physical data about routing of the transport elements;
• wherein the physical data includes a wiring diagram;
• wherein the number of pathways are a subset of all pathways in the volume;
• determining whether the transport elements are within the number of pathways in the volume;
• if the number of transport elements are within the number of pathways, indicating that the transport elements meet the requirements;
• and
• if the number of transport elements are not within the number of pathways, identifying each of the number of transport elements that do not meet the requirements.