Choosing software and replacing ATE: lessons learned

When tasked to ensure the Minuteman Intercontinental Ballistic Missile system remains fully operational and supportable through 2020, the Air Force realized that the support capability of its legacy automated test system for the operational ground support electronics subsystem would need to be completely replaced. The legacy test system, while fully operational, was rapidly becoming non-supportable. Unless replaced with new hardware and upgraded test program sets, the needed long-term support could not be provided to the weapon system. To address this issue within the scope of available program funding constraints, the Air Force selected an approach of combining the technical and programmatic expertise of the weapon system prime contractor, the program control responsibilities of the weapon system Program Office, and the technical capability of an Air Force technical organization. The program was divided into two phases: a prototype phase and a production/rehost phase. This paper gives an overview of the program and presents valuable lessons learned during the prototype phase.     

Integrating VISA, IVI and ATEasy to migrate legacy test systems

New software technologies, such as VISA and IVI, continue to bring the industry toward greater standardization. The benefit to the integrator is reduced costs through reuse of the same hardware and software. The benefit to the customer end-user is lower costs by reducing modification and support through the life-cycle to the test station. However, while we position ourselves for the future with PXI and these software technologies, we must still provide support for VXI, GPIB, and instrument drivers that use current software technologies. Using a number of additional tools such as National Instrument's Measurement and Automation Explorer and Geotest's ATEasy, we can have the power of these tools today while waiting for wider acceptance and support of the newer VISA and IVI technologies. We are just now seeing the development of IVI drivers and the ink is still wet on the VISA specification for PXI. ATEasy provided the structure necessary to use these technologies with the current technology. This paper explores the process of implementing and integrating the system driver and instrument drivers for a PXI-based test station for the TOW2 optical sight sensor.     

Identifying and managing risks for automatic test systems

Risk is the possibility of suffering loss. In a development project, the loss describes the impact to the project which could be in the form of diminished quality of the end-product, increased costs, delayed completion, or failure. This paper discusses the methods and techniques for identifying and managing the risks involved with Automatic Test Systems development     

A potpourri of vignettes, lessons learned and hardover prejudices

Managing any kind of substantial technical program is a complex and difficult job with many facets and a seemingly infinite number of possible misfortunes that can and frequently do, occur. This paper is, in no way, meant to cover the subject of engineering and program management but rather relates some instructive stories about three great managers and discusses a few areas that I believe are important     

风洞试验模型舵机系统研制

提高试验效率一直是风洞试验的目标之一。介绍了中国空气动力研究与发展中心新研制的风洞试验模型舵机系统。地面调试与试验验证结果表明,新系统控制精度在满足国标要求的前提下,可大幅提高试验效率,降低能耗,具有很高的推广价值。     

Lessons learned using software-assisted systems engineering on large satellite development contracts

Over the years, the world's defense industries have become quite proficient at developing large, complex hardware and software systems. In recent years, the ubiquitous deployment of personal computers has changed the way we work. Additionally, took designed to facilitate systems engineering have recently matured enough to start having a major impact on many major systems development efforts. Finally, the government's faster-better-cheaper acquisition philosophy has started driving prime contractors to a concurrent engineering approach toward systems engineering. This confluence of experts is has had unexpected impacts on both the flexibility and rigor of requirements management processes. While the maturing requirements and design took hold great promise in maintaining requirements traceability throughout the design process, the widespread use of desktop computing systems has inadvertently lulled many experienced systems engineers into sloppy processes because it now appears to be a simple matter to make a requirements change in a softcopy of a requirements document. Without strong process and management support, requirements changes inevitably start being derived in a broad spectrum of incompatible took and formats. This author is currently participating in the design phase of a major classified government satellite development effort. As an integral member of an extremely experienced requirements management team (boasting over 150 years of combined experience in the defense industry), this author has had the opportunity to watch the team navigate straight into many of the systems engineering potholes created when talented engineers implement concurrent engineering using a variety of tools without a consistent process framework. This paper, therefore, specifically addresses process and implementation challenges that arose when establishing a software-assisted concurrent-engineering approach on a large satellite development contract.     

C-17 successful application of existing automatic test equipment

The C-17 Program utilizes existing B-1B Automatic Test Equipment (ATE). The C-17 decision is in harmony with the Air Force emphasis on reducing proliferation of unique ATE. The ATE selection was made after consideration of cost, performance and supportability tradeoffs. Minimal augmentation of the government inventoried equipment was required which did not affect the existing hardware and software configuration, This approach significantly reduced C-17 program ATE development costs and afforded the program the use of established logistics elements and support structure. The C-17 program demanded concurrency of support structure and aircraft development-the ATE solution met that demand by reducing risks to a manageable level for both test program set development, and Air Force operation and training requirements     

基于有限元方法的防热瓦损伤分析

防热系统是可重复使用运载器安全飞行的重要保障,而对受损防热结构进行传热特性分析是实现其健康监控的基础.本文针对典型的可重复使用陶瓷防热瓦,建立其有限元传热学分析模型,在考虑气动加热、辐射散热以及防热瓦与飞行器蒙皮之间的传热三种因素的基础上,分别模拟了单片防热瓦在正常情况和发生表面涂层损伤或冲击损伤情况下的传热情况,并进一步分析了两种损伤对于防热瓦温度分布的影响.结果表明,冲击损伤对防热瓦的影响比表层损伤明显严重,可能导致防热瓦底层结构的温度过高而产生严重后果.本文在讨论相应的损伤监测的测点布置原则后建议对防热系统进行多层次的温度监测.     

基于CATS面向信号的TPS开发设计

本文介绍了CATS测试系统开发平台,以及在该平台上进行TPS开发过程,并以数字万用表资源测量某LRU的输出电压为例,详细介绍了面向信号的测试程序开发步骤,实现了在基于CATS平台下面向信号的TPS的开发,为解决航空电子装备的LRU维修问题提供一种可行的研究思路。     

Approach to implementing hardware-independent automatic control systems of lathes and lathe-milling CNC machines

We propose the solution of a logical task in CNC system using software-implemented programmable logical controller (Soft PLC). The solution proposed allows unifying the control algorithms of auxiliary equipment of machine tools and reducing the product launch time of new equipment.     

Noise immunity of automatic GTE control systems with a selector at channel switching modes

Noise immunity analysis was carried out for different variants of constructing automatic GTE control systems with an algebraic selector at channel switching modes. It is shown that regular or random noises available lead to multiple switching of channels in the transient and steady-state conditions. A method for improving noise immunity is considered, and the results of simulating the algorithms proposed are presented.     

Certification of production-representative/productionsoftware-intensive systems for dedicated test and evaluation

Fundamental questions that arise in the certification of readiness for dedicated test and evaluation of software-intensive systems are addressed. They concern what comprises production-representative or production software, what are the software impacts on dedicated system operational test readiness, how software impacts should be considered in the certification process, and what are the retest/recertification requirements associated with software changes/modifications. A paradigm is proposed that answers these questions and outlines guidelines for implementing a solution to these issues. The paradigm is based on existing test and evaluation events and uses a combination of defense and commercial standards and definitions to propose criteria for software certification and retest or regression test     

Deutsche Airbus flight test of Rosemount smart probe fordistributed air data systems

Deutsche Aerospace Airbus (division of DASA) and Rosemount Aerospace Inc. Jointly sponsored a flight test program to evaluate in-flight performance of distributed multifunction air data smart probes. The probes measure pitot pressure, static pressure, and angle of attack. The tests were conducted at the DLR Flight Test Center, near Braunschweig, Germany. Two smart probes were installed on the DLR VFW 614 ATTAS Flight Test Aircraft and tested between June of 1992 and January of 1993. Flight test results are presented together with suggested air data system architectures, including ARINC 738, that can be used with the distributed smart probe concept. New architectures are developed for future commercial aircraft. The smart probe concept offers several advantages including reduced weight and size, reduced number of line replaceable units (LRUs), and increased reliability. Overall cost of ownership is significantly lowered     

An environment for the integration and test of the Space Stationdistributed avionics systems

An approach is described to supplying an environment for the integration and test of the Space Station distributed avionics systems. Background is included on the development of this concept including the lessons learned from Space Shuttle experience. The environment's relationship to the process flow of the Space-Station verification, from systems development to on-orbit verification, is presented. The uses of the environment's hardware implementation, called Data Management System (DMS) kits, are covered. It is explained how these DMS kits provide a development version of the Space-Station operational environment and how this environment allows system developers to verify their systems performance, fault detection, and recovery capability. Conclusions on how the use of the DMS kits, in support of this concept, will ensure adequate on-orbit test capability are included     

内埋式模型操纵面自动变角度系统研制

针对风洞试验模型操纵面角度的改变,开发了内埋式自动变角机构及控制系统,对控制角度进行了地面校准,并采用三角翼模型进行了风洞常规测力实验、重复性实验和操纵面效率试验。结果表明,采用自动变角机构改变操纵面角度的试验精准度均较高,完全满足国军标的要求,说明本操纵面自动变角系统的研制是成功的,在风洞试验中可以代替人工更换角度片方式,大大提高实验效率。     

对控制理论中三个问题的研讨

对控制理论中的三个问题--无约束条件的泛函极值,按可控制和可观性的规范分解,输出反馈与极点配置--进行了讨论.以期对自动控制原理课程的教学提供较大的参考价值,对学术研究也可起一定的启发研讨作用.     

拉刀CAD自动设计方法的探讨

开发了一个基于Microsoft Windows操作系统的拉刀参数化CAD和图档与设计文档管理系统。介绍了系统的总体方案及基本功能模块，探讨了基于网络的图文档案数据库管理、系统安全等相关问题。