US technology giant Microsoft Corp and UK-based engine pioneer Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC announced at the Hannover Messe industrial fair yesterday that they are collaborating to bring new capabilities to Rolls-Royce customers. Rolls-Royce is all thumbs-up for integrating Microsoft Azure IoT Suite and Cortana Intelligence Suite into its service solutions to expand its digital capabilities to support the current and next generation of Rolls-Royce intelligent engines.
“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.
At the ongoing Hannover Messe, Rolls-Royce and Microsoft are holding a stall to demonstrate the capabilities of this collaboration showing how Microsoft will help Rolls-Royce further its developments. Rolls-Royce will incorporate the software tools into its TotalCare maintenance services for its aircraft engines to tackle some of the greatest airline operational challenges. Azure IoT Suite will be used to collect and aggregate data from disparate, geographically distributed sources and Cortana Intelligence Suite to uncover data insights.
The main contention of integrating this technology would be to seek performance feedback using data sets such as engine health data, air traffic control information, route restrictions and fuel usage data to detect operational anomalies and trends. 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.
“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.”
At a time when air accidents are plummeting due to undetected or late detection of system failures, this technology comes as a promising help if implemented diligently. This collaboration would better engine management beyond the current levels of proactive monitoring of engine health and in-flight performance. Through a greater understanding of flight operations excellence, fuel usage and maintenance planning, Rolls-Royce’s airline customers will be able to better retain asset value throughout an engine’s life cycle, reduce flight disruptions and potentially save millions of dollars per year.
A demonstration of the collaboration is on display at the Microsoft Booth at Hannover Messe 2016 in Hall 7, Booth C40.