Microsoft is to collaborate with Rolls-Royce to put IoT into aircraft engines.
Under the partnership, Microsoft Azure IoT Suite and Cortana Intelligence Suite will be integrated into Rolls-Royce’s service solutions to extend its digital capabilities for supporting existing and next generation intelligent engines.
The engine maker intends to enhance aircraft efficiency, drive up aircraft availability and lower engine maintenance costs using IoT technology.
It will use the Azure IoT Suite to collect and aggregate data from disparate, geographically distributed sources and Cortana Intelligence Suite to uncover data insights. Data sets such as engine health data, air traffic control information, route restrictions and fuel usage data will be collected to detect operational anomalies and trends and then provide intelligent performance feedback on the findings.
Using Azure Stream Analytics and Microsoft Power BI dashboards, the goal is to uncover data insights that will enable airlines to improve their operational performance and increase fuel efficiency.
Related: US airline JetBlue launches lab to test Internet of Things and AI
IoT + Microsoft = digital engines
“Our customers are looking for ways to leverage the digital landscape to increase efficiency and improve their operations,” said Tom Palmer, senior vice president, Services, Civil Aerospace, at Rolls-Royce. “By working with Microsoft we can really transform our digital services, supporting customers right across engine-related aircraft operations to make a real difference to performance.”
“Rolls-Royce has always been a pioneer in engine services, and this collaboration will create a new digital engine for Rolls-Royce to deliver an even better service to its customers across its world-class engine fleet through Microsoft Azure,” said Jason Zander, corporate vice president of Microsoft Azure at Microsoft.
Macario Namie, vice president of Marketing at Jasper, told Internet of Business that with IoT, we’re seeing physical industries transform as the digital and physical worlds converge.
“That transformation is turning a traditional product business into a service business,” he said.
He pointed to another example in GE Aviation. “GE Aviation uses Jasper to deliver a real-time, preventive maintenance service to airlines. In turn, this partnership helps to keep airplanes running and deliver passengers to their destinations on time,” he said.
“Connecting engines to centralised systems is one step that GE Aviation is taking to help reduce over 60,000 flight delays and cancellations per year that contribute to more than $8 billion in operational costs annually.”
Related: Airbus leveraging Internet of Things and IBM Watson for connected aircraft