multi-functional FOD-cleaning machine

Abstract

The FODBot consists of a primary power source, a fan for creating suction, a suction nozzle for picking up FOD from flat areas and depressions in the flat areas, a horizontal brush for moving FOD to the suction nozzle and a cup brush with deformable linkage that can adjust to vertical surfaces and move FOD from the edge of these surfaces to the suction nozzle. The FOD removal machine also contains FOD sensors, position sensors and an algorithm and computer to create a digital twin of all acquired FOD by building a database of the FOD's type, location and time of cleaning.

Description

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT

Not Applicable

DESCRIPTION OF ATTACHED APPENDIX

Not Applicable

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention applies to the activity of cleaning FOD (Foreign Objects and Debris) from areas associated with the operation and maintenance of aircraft including runways, ramps, apron areas, hangars and sunshades. FOD presents a danger to the operation of aircraft if it enters and travels through an aircraft engine. FOD can consist of a variety of objects including aggregates (stone, concrete or asphalt), metallic components (such as fasteners, wire) or non-metallic components. This FOD can be found in many locations in the areas mentioned above (ramps plus) including on the concrete surface, lying in seams between the concrete sections, within cracks found in the concrete, in special-purpose recesses for tying-down aircraft or attaching ground straps, or next to structures that are attached to the concrete. One of the strategies to reduce the danger of FOD to aircraft is to clean and remove FOD from the areas in which aircraft operate and are transported (ramps plus). This can be done manually or with mechanized tools. Manual FOD cleaning is time intensive and can yield poor cleaning performance. Mechanized tools are generally either large and access runway areas only, or are specialized for a particular type of FOD or a particular cleaning area. Some of the primary strategies for cleaning FOD as shown in the literature and or as commercial products include the following; magnetic sweepers, using either permanent or electro magnets to attract ferrous or, draggable mats that lift and capture or on flat areas, brushes for sweeping that can rotate about a vertical or horizontal axis, blowers that move FOD away from an critical area using the change of momentum in the wind, or a vacuum that can attract FOD again by using the change of momentum from a stream of air flowing past the FOD. The current literature and or current commercial systems however do not demonstrate a multi-functional machine that uses more than one of these techniques combined in a preferred way to clear FOD. This invention presents a multi-functional mechanism that can clean multiple-types of FOD from multiple locations on the ramps plus area.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART

Multiple tools exist for cleaning FOD from runways. The largest and most common tool is a truck-mounted vacuum that drives on the runway and vacuums up FOD. this system is too large to use in the ramps-plus area. Another tool consists of a truck-mounted blower that blows FOD off the runway. This tool is too large to use in the ramps-plus area. Man-portable vacuums or man-push vacuums are available that can be used in the ramps-plus area. These do not access areas where structures are attached to the concrete surface well and further to not pull FOD out of the cracks, seams or tie downs that form depressions in the concrete surface. Man-portable magnets can be used in the ramps-plus area but these to not acquire non-ferrous metallic components or aggregate. Sweeping mats are available but these must be operated at a high speed and are not suited for the ramps-plus area. Therefore, a tool that is small enough to operate in the ramps-plus area and can address the multiple locations and types of FOD can be useful in lower the damage caused by FOD to aircraft.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

This patent defines a multi-functional tool for cleaning FOD in the ramps-plus area. This invention consists of the following primary parts as shown in FIG. 1. Table I lists the cleaning mechanisms that are contained in the invention and identifies the primary purpose of each. The invention is called FODBot by the inventors and will be referred to in this way throughout the remaining portions of the application.

TABLE
FODBot primary components
item	identifying #	Purpose
Horizontal	9	Cleaning wide areas of all FOD
Brush
Cup Brush on	10	Mechanically cleaning around
floating linkage		sunshade supports
Suction Nozzle	8	Cleans out expansion joints, tie
		downs and cracks
Magnet Bar	20	traps magnetic FOD, with easy removal
FAN	4	Primary propellant for FOD to
		collection Bin
FOD sorting	5	Isolates larger FOD for easy retrieval
stage
FOD collection	23	Traps FOD for removal
bin
Power plant	2	Commercial tractor, operates on Jet fuel
Operator's	3	Protects operator from sun, fan
station
Mapping	32	Tracks cleaning tasks in real-time with
		mapping software
FOD detection	31	senses FOD as it travels through
sensor		the suction tube

Description of Invention

The Multi-functional tool for cleaning FOD (1) (called FODBot) consists of the following components. At the center of the FODBot is a mobile chassis and power source (2), in this case consisting of a sub-compact tractor commercially available. The mobile chassis and power source is sized primarily around having sufficient power to drive all of the attached tooling, having a small turning radius and generally small size to fit within the desired operating areas such as in or around hangars and around aircraft. The mobile chassis and power source has an operator station (3) on which the operator can sit and drive or operate the machine to perform the FOD cleaning functions. The machine is powered by an engine and driven as a normal sub-compact tractor (2). The Power take off of the tractor powers a suction fan (4) within a suction chamber (5) to create vacuum or air flow into the suction chamber to power some of the FOD collection tools. A separation chamber (6) is attached to the suction chamber and will separate any FOD material from the air flow. A suction tube or duct (7) travels from the separation chamber to the suction nozzle (8). The suction nozzle lifts FOD from flat areas and moves it into the FOD collection chamber using a vacuum. The suction nozzle directs ambient air into the airflow created by the vacuum into the suction tube and separation chamber. The suction nozzle can also lift FOD out of cracks or depressions in the surface of a hangar, runway or paved or hard-surface area. The suction nozzle is designed to accelerate airflow from the rear of the nozzle to the front when the nozzle is over a seam, tie-down or crack in order to lift FOD out of the seam, tie down or crack and into the collection chamber. A horizontal brush (9) is mounted with its axis parallel to the cleaning surface and moves FOD from flat areas to the suction nozzle. It does this through action of the rotating bristles moving along the cleaning surface. The bristles move forward and slightly sideways according to a slight forward angle of the axis of the horizontal brush. This slight sideways movement moves FOD to one end of the horizontal brush. The suction nozzle (8) is located right behind this end of the horizontal brush allowing it to attract and pull-in the FOD that is moved here by the horizontal brush. A cup brush (10) with flexible bristles is mounted on the FODBot to rotate around a nominally vertical axis with small forward tilt. The cup brush is located on the opposing side of the suction nozzle, and positioned above the cleaning surface such that the bristles move forward and toward the suction nozzle. The cup brush will move FOD and deposit it in front of the suction nozzle to be attracted and pulled into the suction tube. The axis of the cup brush (13) is mounted on a swing arm (11) with a rotating joint or swing-arm pivot (12) at or near the body of the chassis of the FODBot (2). The swing arm allows the cup brush to move back and inward toward the FODBot in the case that the cup brush encounters a rigid object. The axis of the swing-arm pivot (16) and the length of the swing arm dictate the motion of the axis of the cup brush. A spring (14) is attached between the swing arm and chassis, the spring creates a fore on the swing arm. A stop (15) is attached to the chassis and positioned to interfere with the motion of the swing arm. The spring and stop are arranged to keep the cup brush positioned at a preferred cleaning position, while the swing arm allows the cup brush to move out of the way if it encounters a rigid object while continuing the sweeping process.

A magnet bar (20) is attached to the front of the FODBot to gather a majority of the ferrous objects and keep them separated from the remaining portion of the FOD. The magnet bar (20) contains a series of permanent magnets with alternating poles aligned along a vertical axis. A ferrous material is placed between each magnet and on the top side of the magnet bar (the side away from the clearing surface). The magnet bar is an equal width to the horizontal brush such that brush cleaning and magnetic cleaning cover the same area. The magnet bar is suspended from the cleaning surface by a defined distance to maintain a high magnetic field at the cleaning surface while clearing expected obstacles. Different options for creating a magnet field and polling arrangements are noted in the literature.

The separation chamber removes FOD from the air flow. The FOD can then be deposited into a FOD collection chamber (23). A pre-collection chamber (24) with a grate can be installed to sort out larger FOD. A filter (22) cleans the air flow after passing through the separation chamber. Exhaust air travels out the exhaust duct (26).

The FOD removal machine can also be equipped with sensors for identifying the presence of FOD. Since all non-ferrous FOD is attracted and pulled into the suction chamber through the suction tube, a FOD sensor (31) mounted in the suction tube can detect FOD as it passes through. A sensor such as an optical sensor which emits a light source and then measures the return light either in a pass-through or reflected configuration, can be calibrated to determine the presence of FOD as it passes through the sensor region. When FOD is detected, it can send that information to an algorithm contained in a computer (33) mounted on board the FODBot. The number of FOD items collected can be stored along with information such as date and time. In addition, a positioning sensor such as GPS unit (32) can be placed on the FODBot to provide current position of the FODBot during operation. This position information sent to an algorithm running on a computer (33) mounted on board the FOD. This algorithm can include position and time information when a piece of FOD is located and picked up by the FODBot. This information collectively can create a digital twin of the FOD to provide information about FOD for an entire airfield.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

FIG. 1: shows an overview the FODBot and primary components

FIG. 2: shows an overview the FODBot and primary components side view

FIG. 3: shows an overview the FODBot and primary components off hand side view

FIG. 4: shows the suction chamber details

FIG. 5: shows the cup brush details

FIG. 6: shows the suction nozzle

FIG. 7: shows the FODBot components for sensing FOD, measuring position and creating data base of acquired FOD and location

Claims

1. A multi-functional FOD removal machine for cleaning FOD from a surface of the ramps plus areas consisting of:

a power supply,

a suction chamber with fan,

a suction nozzle,

a horizontal brush, configured to move FOD along the surface to the suction nozzle, and

a cup brush, configured to move FOD along the surface to the suction nozzle.

2. A multi-functional FOD removal machine for cleaning FOD from ramps plus areas according to claim 1 in which the cup brush is mounted on a one degree of freedom linkage that can deflect around objects during operation without interruption of the sweeping process.

3. A multi-functional FOD removal machine for cleaning FOD from ramps plus areas according to claim 1 further having a magnet bar.

4. A FOD cleaning machine consisting of a cup brush with the cup brush mounted on a one degree of freedom linkage that can deflect around objects during operation without interruption of the sweeping process.

5. A FOD cleaning machine consisting of a cup brush with the cup brush mounted on a one degree of freedom linkage according to claim 4 further having a spring and a stopper that will return the cup brush and the one degree of freedom linkage to a preferred location after deflecting around an object without interruption of the sweeping process.

6. A multi-functional FOD removal machine for cleaning FOD from ramps plus areas according to claim 1 which includes

a FOD sensor between the suction nozzle and the suction chamber with fan,

a FOD identification algorithm,

a FOD logging entry combining location, time, FOD type to create a FOD digital twin.

7. A multi-functional FOD removal machine for cleaning FOD from ramps plus areas according to claim 6 in which the sensor consists of optical sensors.

8. A multi-functional FOD removal machine for cleaning FOD from ramps plus areas according to claim 6 in which the FOD removal machine acquires location from GPS coordinates and includes the position information on the FOD digital twin

9. A multi-functional FOD removal machine for cleaning FOD from ramps plus areas according to claim 1 in which the FOD removal machine operates in autonomous (unmanned) operation using GPS and localization and path planning algorithms.