FROM THE EDITOR
I’LL TAKE TROUBLESHOOTING FOR $500, ALEX
I’M A FAN OF JEOPARDY, THE TV TRIVIA SHOW HOSTED BY ALEX TREBEK. IT’S A FUN WAY FOR ME TO LEARN ABOUT SUBJECTS I WOULD HAVE NEVER
CONSIDERED EXPLORING. In 2011, IBM-developed Watson, a computer that uses artifi cial intelligence (AI) to answer questions posed to it in natural language, competed against former Jeopardy winners Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings on the show. Watson won the competition! AI is all around us. Several commercial applications are in use. iPhone users talk to Siri, Android users pose questions to Google and others pose questions and commands to Amazon’s Alexa. AI is now infi ltrating hangars around
EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
JOE ESCOBAR
jescobar@DOMmagazine.com 920.747.0195
the world. Last month, Aircraft Technical Publishers (ATP) announced the acquisition of CaseBank Technologies. CaseBank computer-based troubleshooting system is called SpotLight. SpotLight uses what CaseBank calls “hybrid reasoning” that pulls information from technical data and past discrepancies and solutions to quickly troubleshoot faults based on trends across aircraft fl eets. As more aircraft mechanics use SpotLight, its knowledge and troubleshooting capabilities increase dramatically. In addition, SpotLight pulls information from all users, so even a small shop can gain a signifi cant troubleshooting benefi t based on the experiences of other mechanics in the fi eld. It’s a way to seamlessly share tribal knowledge with all users. The fi rst step of traditional
troubleshooting is to understand how the system works in a normal mode so that we can then fi gure out what the critical paths of infl uence are. We then test diff erent parts of the system to determine the component at fault. SpotLight takes care of those fi rst steps. Its knowledge is based upon OEM engineering information and user discrepancies and solutions. When a discrepancy is entered, SpotLight starts to
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DOMmagazine.com | feb 2017
ask the mechanic a series of questions to pinpoint the solution. I was able to get a demo of SpotLight and I was impressed with its troubleshooting abilities. I was also impressed with the ability of SpotLight to help uncover other maintenance issues during routine/heavy maintenance. In the example we went through, a mechanic was assigned to inspect the aircraft’s VHF antenna. Upon inspecting the antenna, she fi nds deteriorated sealant. She then enters this information into the system. SpotLight then searches its information database to see if there are any past discrepancies that could be related to this defect. When the mechanic clicks on the repair procedure, SpotLight notes that based on past discrepancies in the fi eld, water leaking from bad sealant on VHF antenna has led to problems with fl ight attendant call buttons. Leaking water gets to the terminal block behind the call button and bridges the isolation gap, making it seem as if a fl ight attendant is holding down the call button. It then queries the maintenance database of the aircraft being worked on and fi nds recurring problems in the past regarding the fl ight attendant call button. The maintenance department now knows that this problem has likely been fi xed by correcting the sealant issue on the antenna. The question begs to be asked — how will this advancing technology aff ect the actual troubleshooting skills of mechanics? Well, how has GPS navigation aff ected our ability to read and understand maps? I would argue that those who already knew how to read maps can now get from Point A to Point B easier, while those who never learned to read a map can just as easily get from Point A to Point B. The problem comes when there is no
GPS available. Then what? The same goes for troubleshooting!
Thanks for reading, and we appreciate your comments. - Joe Escobar
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