Interactive Electronic Technical Manual Research Articles

IETM Technology is the Development Direction of Engineering Machinery Maintenance

Based on the interactive electronic technical manual (IETM) characteristics of the analysis, combined with the current situation of China's engineering machinery repair, comparative analysis of technical advantages of using IETM technology in engineering machinery repair in data acquisition technology, from the speed, fault isolation efficiency and personnel's work efficiency and other aspects, discusses the necessity of its application; combined with IETM production standards, from the main creative part of IETM, such as information generation, information management, production of interactive interface, several aspects of publishing, explains IETM make the development process and the main production platform. By using the structure block diagram, showing the method of information production and information management mode, and the main modules in the block diagram and function are described; and discusses future development proposals.

Research on Integrated Data Environment for Aviation Equipments Based on Extensive Interactivity of IETMs

As a focus for the current research in the informatization field, Interactive Electronic Technical Manuals (IETMs) involve all kinds of activities relating to equipment support and diversified extensible interactive interfaces. By studying the interaction of IETMs for aviation equipments with other information systems, IETMs functions can be expanded in terms of maintenance aiding, training aiding and technical data management aiding. By creating an integrated data environment framework of IETMs for aviation equipments with Extensible Markup Language (XML) technology, an intermediate mode, the information exchange and sharing can be achieved between different data sources, and the supportability and supporting capability of aviation equipments can be improved.

Structured design of interactive electronic technical manuals based on virtual reality means

This paper represents a method of structured design of interactive electronic technical manuals based on virtual reality means. Results of applying the method to design of the dedicated program system for creating interactive electronic technical manuals, training systems and simulators based on three-dimensional geometrical models and virtual reality means are reported. A generalized network model of the system, its structure chart, the databases of 3D-models for implementing virtual assembling of engineering products are considered.

Information Organization of Augmented Reality Maintenance Guiding System

The information organization and expression is a key issue for the Augmented Reality Maintenance Guiding System（ARMGS）. In this paper, we firstly build up the relationship between the aircraft maintenance manual, EBOM figure and virtual prototype data , then construct a prototype of Interactive Electronic Technical Manual (IETM). The system can convert the aircraft virtual prototype data to the required information for augmented reality maintenance guiding system, based on the information, the prototype can be rapidly and lifelikely displayed. The system proposed in this paper significantly improves the quality and effectiveness of modeling.

Study of Development IETM Based on S1000D Specification

The Interactive Electronic Technical Manual (IETM) can solve some practical application problems of the traditional paper technical manuals on storing difficulty and resource sharing inefficiency well. The S1000D specification is an international specification of development IETM. In the paper the S1000D specification is introduced briefly. Then the meanings of Data Module (DM) and Common Source Database (CSDB) which are the core concepts of the S1000D specification are analyzed. At last, the development process of IETM based on S1000D specification is given.

Development Framework of Interactive Electronic Technical Manual for Urban Regeneration

Abstract: Urban regeneration is a large-scale program that must address challenges such as a significant number of involved projects, diverse participants and their conflicting objectives, and a long life span. In an effort to address these issues, the Interactive Electronic Technical Manual (IETM) is applied to urban regeneration in order to provide a guideline to enhance urban regeneration program management. Through a survey, three major functionalities required in the IETM are identified: process map provision, customized information delivery, and communication ability with other information systems. To achieve these functionalities, the development framework of the IETM and the associated technologies are examined.Its characteristics can be sum up ontology-driven metadata, user-oriented process map composition system and so on. Finally, the usage scenarios of the IETM are discussed. Keywords: urban regeneration, program management, information system, electronic technical manual

Application and Research of XML Technology in IETM

XML (eXtensive Markup Language) technology is the key technology in the development of Interactive Electronic Technical Manual (IETM) system. Focus on the analysis of the application of XML technology on current standardization and database of XML technology on the expert knowledge system.

전자매뉴얼을 활용한 도시재생사업의 법.행정절차 제공 시스템의 개념적 모형

최근 건설 산업은 IT기술의 발전과 함께 새로운 기류를 맞고 있다. 컴퓨터를 이용한 다양하고 신속한 정보 및 지식관리가 이루어지고 있으며 사용자간 의사소통도 활발하게 이루어지고 있다. 이미 시공단계의 정보들을 처리해 주는 PMIS와 사용자들의 업무 노하우를 공유하는 수단인 KMS와 같은 시스템이 현장에 적용 되어 활용되고 있고, 최근에는 전자매뉴얼(IETM)로 대변되어지는 생애주기 전반의 법, 행정 절차제공자에 관한 연구로 범위가 확장되고 있다. 그러나 도시재생사업과 같은 대규모 건설사업의 경우 사용주체와 용도에 따라 주요 기능이 역동적으로 변화되는데 이 역동성은 전자매뉴얼 고유의 역할을 제한하기도 하고 기존의 시스템들과 경계를 모호하게 하기도 한다. 이에 본 연구에서는 경력 실무자들을 대상으로한 설문과 인터뷰, 건설프로젝트의 특성 분석을 통하여 건설분야 전자매뉴얼이 갖추어야 할 요소들과 설계 전략을 규정하고 이를 토대로 도시재생사업의 적용예를 통해 법과 행정절차 제공자라는 개발취지에 적합한 전자매뉴얼 개념 모델을 제시한다. Recently construction industry has faced new era as following the advances of IT technology. It becomes possible that information and knowledge among people are exchanged actively thanks to computer-based tools. In fact, the tools, PMIS(Project Management Information System) and KMS(Knowledge Management System) already have been introduced to constuction industry successfully. Lately IETM(Interactive Electronic Technical Manual) is tried to be one of these systems. This trying is being enlarged that the IETM's concept is changed to administrative and legal process provider throughout the lifespan of construction projects. However, it is hard to define construction IETM in mega-scale project like urban regeneration project because construction projects are complex and have diverse stakeholders. These properties may make the IETM ambiguous system. To do define IETM as a administrative and legal process provider, this research will conduct survey and interview, then analyze its own properties and find out design strategies. Based on the properties and strategies, suggesting IETM's system demands and architecture of urban regeneration processes.

Wiki기반 건설 사업관리 전자매뉴얼 : 도시환경정비사업 사례연구를 통해

최근 국내 외의 건설 프로젝트는 이해관계가 복잡해서 업무 흐름을 파악하기 어렵기 때문에 IETM(Interactive Electronic Technical Manual)을 이용하여 사업 참여자들의 의사결정을 지원하려는 연구가 진행되고 있다. 본래 IETM은 신속한 정보 처리가 가능해서 타 분야에 도입되었으나, 건설 사업은 정보의 변화 가능성이 높아서 정보 유지관리에 어려움이 있어 활성화 되지 못했다. 본 연구에서는 건설 사업관리 IETM이 정보 변화성을 수용하고 정보를 지속적으로 유지관리하기 위한 방법으로 위키의 정보 관리기능에 주목하여 위키 기반 시스템의 성공사례를 바탕으로 특성을 분석하고 건설 분야 적용을 위한 요소를 추출하였다. 이를 바탕으로, 건설 사업의 이해관계로 인한 의도적 파괴를 방지하고 프로세스 중심의 특성을 반영하기 위한 IETM 시스템 모델을 제시하고 건설 사업관리 분야의 특성을 대표할 수 있는 도시환경정비사업 절차에 대한 IETM 프로토타입을 구현하였다. 파일럿테스트 결과, 위키 기반 전자매뉴얼은 유지관리측면에서 기존의 결과 중심적인 지식 형성 과정에 의사소통을 가능하게 함으로써 건설 사업 수행 중의 의사소통 프로세스를 개선할 수 있는 것으로 나타났다. Recently, workers on construction sites can hardly understand their tasks and the process of the tasks because the construction projects are becoming large and complex. Due to the complexity, workers need a tool that can help them understand their works and some paper-based manuals exist to support them. However, the existing paperbased manuals are not actively used by workers due to the low credibility of information on the manual. In particular, paper-based manual can not be updated frequently because those manuals have to be manually updated by experts. Thus, the credibility of information is decreased and the decrease let the users distrust information of the paper-based manual. Therefore, this research analyzed the feature of wiki-based system and suggested an wiki-based IETM(Interactive Electronic Technical Manual) system model that can be modified by users, and then conducted a survey through a prototype based on urban regeneration project. The result of the survey indicated that wikibased IETM can improve the stakeholder communication by reinforcing the process of creating knowledge as well as knowledge itself.

Current Issues and Research Related to the Development and Delivery of Interactive Electronic Technical Manuals

For very practical reasons, technical publications and tactical information for military systems are now delivered with, or are being converted to, electronic format. While Interactive Electronic Technical Manuals (IETMs) have been available for quite some time, many research issues remain. Among these is the need to provide alternative search technologies that quickly and easily allow system users to navigate through large amounts of technical documentation to find required information. Further, natural language interfaces can provide users with a hands-free, voice-activated interface that may significantly improve a user's ability to perform their job. Finally, the use of intelligent diagnostics and tutoring can allow users access to expertise and learning opportunities. The objective of this panel is to provide an overview and discussion of issues related to the use of IETMs and current research related to IETMs for performance support and training.

Constructing Multilevel Metadata Networks for Sharing Dispersed and Transient Information in a Mobile Environment

An intelligent multi-user mechanism has been prototyped at the Information System Collaboratory of the Pennsylvania State University, which is capable of resolving global queries with differing and overlapping information needs, spatial scalability and temporal assumptions. The sources of information for this prototype are mechanical damage monitoring sensors embedded in equipment at plant sites, on-board ships or aircrafts, archived historical and diagnostic databases like those available through NALCOMIS (NAVMASSO document J-004 EM-001C, 1995) logistics and maintenance databases at depots, interactive electronic technical manuals stored in databases, dynamic models of damage, and models of operational performance. The concept-of-operation includes mobile access to this information by equipment maintainers on-board ships, aircrafts and other mobile platforms. Real-time interoperation of these system components and databases, under dynamic equipment operating conditions of thermo-mechanical and environmental stress, requires complex interactions of internal representations of sensor data, performance requirements, resources and equipment models, with rich semantics. To support such interactions, following the work of Bright, Hurson and Pakzad (Bright, Hurson, and Pakzad, Transactions on Database Systems, Vol. 19, No. 2, pp. 212–253, 1994) local schema terms of available data sources are organized as the leaf nodes in a semantic network of metadata. The physical nodes of the network are partitioned into a top-down multi-level search control structure of increasing precision and decreasing semantic aggregation. Each physical node supports search through all lower layers of metadata in connected tree configurations. The resulting multilayered semantic network is modeled as a Thesaurus of terms T and relationships R. A relationship in R may be crisp or fuzzy. The DTIC (Defense Technical Information Center) thesaurus for equipment maintenance was used as a starting point in this work. It was further enhanced by application specific terms and endowed with a distance function. This distance function is used to formulate user adaptable Graphic User Interfaces (GUI) for making quality of service tradeoffs in the resolution of global queries. Step-by-step construction of the thesaurus as a multilevel metadata network, its scalability, dynamic adaptation through usage, and tolerance of semantic imprecision in query resolution are discussed in this paper. Furthermore, performance metrology for evaluating quality of service in global query resolution is also developed (Phoha, in Proceedings of the NIST Workshop on Advancing Measurements and Testing for Information Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, Oct. 1998). This work was funded by DARPA for the past four years under grant DE-FC36-94G010064, for establishing a National Information Infrastructure Testbed for Electronic Commerce in equipment health monitoring, failure diagnosis and prognosis services.

Wearable computers open a new era in support resource management

Our aerospace customers are demanding that we drastically reduce the operating and support costs of our products. In today's aerospace maintenance environment, the vast majority of maintenance technicians are using paper technical publications, with fixed troubleshooting trees, and manual or semi-automated post maintenance documentation. Interactive Electronic Technical Manuals (IETMs) are at this time being deployed with portable maintenance aids, often an electronic notebook-sized data presentation system, some with expert system based troubleshooting aids. Many of the IETM based systems still require post maintenance documentation and, the maintenance control function is at best, updated when each maintenance task is completed and the vehicle departs. Advances in wearable computer technologies allow us to integrate the maintenance technician with a highly automated, tightly managed support system that will significantly reduce support costs and turn-around times while improving the quality of maintenance. A "Portable Maintenance Terminal" is a wearable computer configured to meet a maintenance technician's information and communication needs. The Portable Maintenance Terminal (PMT) will place the maintenance technician in the loop with the support system. Wearable computers are intended for use in locations where easy access to a desktop computer or laptop is not practical, or where operators are required to have their hands on the job rather than being busy with a computer. The wearable PMT can provide a hands-free, heads-up, networked computing environment.

Document Scripting with Open Standards: Transport of ApplicationBehavior for Interactive Technical Documents

Different from the highly evolved and refined traditions of paper publishing, the models for both storing and presenting computer-based interactive documents is rapidly changing (and will continue to change). It is imperative that standards for application-neutral, interchangeable, and self-describing information content be applied if we are to maintain the value of electronic technical documents throughout the lifetime of the systems that they describe. In addition, for these types of documents it is important that the application behavior–the control logic that governs how an interactive document acts–is recorded. This paper addresses the interaction between electronic documents and the presentation software that renders them, focusing on the scripting of interactive behavior. The concepts are illustrated using an application of the SGML standard called the Metafile for Interactive Documents (MID), developed for the U.S. Navy to improve interoperability of Interactive Electronic Technical Manuals (IETMs).

Standards‐Based IETMs: The Key to Integrated Weapon System Support

ABSTRACTThis paper describes the role of the DOD Interactive Electronic Technical Manual (IETM) standards in the application of electronic documentation to the TRIDENT II Strategic Weapon System (SWS) Program. The SWS Program integrates IETMs with SWS data providing automated operational and maintenance procedures and reference documentation at the SWS operator consoles. Integrated ship's logistics, administration, and onboard training can also be supported.An operational environment is provided that supports multiple “views” of a MIL‐D‐87269 compliant database, including a legacy view of the database used to minimize the operator impacts of the transition from paper to electronic documentation.An IETM database development process is described that includes: Establishing the Baseline, the one‐time low cost legacy technical manual conversion; Exploiting the Media, the incorporation of Class 4 IETM capabilities; and Maintaining the Baseline, an integrated IETM maintenance environment used for recurring maintenance of the IETM database. Authoring capabilities of the IETM Maintenance System are discussed as are other capabilities supporting workflow management, configuration control, electronic review and approval, and IETM database verification and validation.Finally, programmatic experience is described including Navy/contractor coordination, adoption of standards, and suitability of the standards to the SWS application.

The US army IETM one year later

SAIC and the US Army have created a new approach to diagnostic testing that is both economical to develop and capable of tackling real world trouble shooting problems. This technology resulted in the development of a set of Interactive Electronic Technical Manuals (IETMs) for a new breed of heavy trucks also developed by the Army. The original concept was first presented in the 1993 Proceedings of AutoTestCon when the IETMs were still under development and the architecture was fluid. This paper is a follow up on the completion of the project. It analyzes the effectiveness of the various multimedia techniques used in the IETM such as sound, video clips, text to speech translation, hyper-text and hyper-procedures. It also presents a series of metrics collected on the IETMs such as mass storage space requirements, authoring problems encountered and other lessons learned about developing IETMs.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

An expert systems technology approach to maintenance proficiency

Traditional maintenance training curricula use paper technical manuals to teach “tricks of the trade” in corrective and preventive maintenance which requires multiple adjustments, lengthy calibrations and labor-intensive test/checkout procedures. Rotation often delays personnel assignment to a platform which requires these maintenance skills. The non-availability of skilled maintenance personnel poses a tremendous threat to readiness conditions for mission critical equipment. In order to best support the Navy's maintenance requirements and improve maintenance efficiency, the Naval Research Laboratory at Stennis Space Center, Mississippi developed an Expert Maintenance Advisor (EMA). This paper discusses an approach which implements Expert Systems technology methods to develop an expert maintenance reference. It also addresses the impact of performance support systems and interactive electronic technical manuals in maintenance training.

Redundancy techniques for reliable flight-control computers : J. J. Fleck, IEEE Trans. on Commun. and Electron., 82, 535 (1963)

Traditional maintenance training curricula use paper technical manuals to teach “tricks of the trade” in corrective and preventive maintenance which requires multiple adjustments, lengthy calibrations and labor-intensive test/checkout procedures. Rotation often delays personnel assignment to a platform which requires these maintenance skills. The non-availability of skilled maintenance personnel poses a tremendous threat to readiness conditions for mission critical equipment. In order to best support the Navy's maintenance requirements and improve maintenance efficiency, the Naval Research Laboratory at Stennis Space Center, Mississippi developed an Expert Maintenance Advisor (EMA).This paper discusses an approach which implements Expert Systems technology methods to develop an expert maintenance reference. It also addresses the impact of performance support systems and interactive electronic technical manuals in maintenance training.