Implementing reusable, instrument independent test programs in thefactory

Development of computer programs that control test sequences on Automatic Test Equipment (ATE) is costly and time consuming. Test Programs are usually written by specifying the instruments to be used in the ATE and the sequence of the setup and measurement parameters for these instruments. Reuse of test program software on other ATE is usually not possible without rewriting, revalidating and re-releasing the programs. This paper describes an implementation of a test program software development system and a standard of software runtime architecture used in our factories. The object-oriented development environment and its associated class libraries allow test programs to be written without knowledge of the ATE on which they will be run. Two main principles guided the design: the software architecture was based on recognized formal and industry standards; and our implementation used commercial off-the-shelf software products when possible. Emerging standards such as the IEEE-1226 (ABBET) as well as defacto industry standards including VXI Plug and Play have made our implementation possible. The current draft of the ABBET and P&P standards do not promote this instrument independence, but it is hoped that this will be added as the standards mature. Three immediate benefits are: cost savings that result from reusing validated test programs; cycle time reductions that result from concurrently developing test program software and ATE; and software defect reductions that result from using proven software     

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     

Analysis tools for the evaluation of maintenance software

Test packages written for built-in test (BIT) and mobile automatic test equipment (ATE) systems for the forward support of electronic and thermal imaging equipment used by the British Army are currently scrutinized and subjected to objective tests by test package evaluation and acceptance teams (TPEATs) before being accepted for field use. This is a time-consuming and costly exercise that can result in the rejection of unsuitable software. The result of such rejection on equipment logistics is for reaching, since the hardware will enter service without adequate maintenance support. In an attempt to address this problem a suite of programs aimed at assisting the verification and validation activities of the TPEAT at every stage of the software life cycle from requirements analysis through to testing and acceptance is being devised. The development of these tools is discussed     

Peripheral emulation extends equipment life [ATE]

The ATE industry can benefit greatly by becoming better informed about the availability, functionality, and reliability of emulated peripheral solutions. Emulated peripherals provide the ability to dramatically extend the life of aging ATE equipment, while making that equipment more reliable, more functional, much easier to use, and much simpler to support. The use of emulated disk drives and tape drives can completely eliminate persistent maintenance headaches, increase ATE station availability and reliability, and provide a reasonably priced technology refresh without costly software modifications or system recertification.     

基于PAWS软件平台的ATE项目开发

PAWS软件是TYX公司开发的专用测试软件,对于ATE项目,使用PAWS软件有着明显优势,它有着针对性强,模块划分明显的特点。本文介绍了在ATE项目中,怎样使用PAWS软件平台开发与硬件关联的测试软件。     

Teaching old tricks to new dogs [automatic test equipment]

This describes why transferring test programs and fixtures from obsolete automatic test equipment (ATE) to new equipment are not as simple as it should be. No one would argue that technology has made major advances on test in the last 30 years. Today, speed, overall performance, computing power, and software tools are more sophisticated than 20 or 30 years ago, when the first ATE appeared. As these ATE now head for retirement and as the programs they support still have a long life to live, one would think legacy replacement with new ATE would be a simple task. Unfortunately, this is seldom the case. We realize that old ATE had a number of cards up their sleeves to deal with. For example, high voltage technology, lack of computer aided engineering (CAE) data, requirements for parametric tests, extensive usage of the guided probe, and many other aspects might be not so simple to be reproduced with modern, yet powerful, ATE. The paper shall identify the specific constraints involved with old technology and give examples of success stories where new ATE has been adapted to respond to the challenge. Paraphrasing (in reverse) and old saying, it is like "teaching old tricks to new dogs".     

Software architecture requirements for DoD automatic test systems

The DoD has achieved success with recent automatic test equipment (ATE) families, as evidenced by the navy's consolidated automated support system (CASS) and the army's integrated family of test equipment (IFTE) programs. However, as these systems age, the increased requirements for technology insertion due to instrument obsolescence and the demands of advanced electronics are becoming evident. Recent advances in test technology promise to yield reduced total ownership costs (TOC) for ATE which can incorporate the new technology. The DoD automatic test system (ATS) executive agent office (EAO) objective is to significantly reduce total ownership cost. Several objectives have been identified including use of synthetic instruments, support for legacy test product sets (TPSs), and more efficient ways of developing TPSs. The NxTest software architecture will meet the objectives by providing an open systems approach to the system software. This will allow for the incorporation of commercial applications in the TPS development and execution environments and support current advances in test technology     

ATE综合校准系统的软件设计及实现

通用自动测试设备（ATE）的测量准确性、可靠性会直接影响飞机综合保障的质量,因此,对此检测设备进行全面有效的测试校准,是确保测试系统完成任务的关键。为了保障测试数据准确可靠和量值传递统一及实现现场的系统性校准工作,本课题以通用自动测试设备为对象,建立了一套基于虚拟仪器技术基础上的综合校准系统。本文对系统的软件结构设计进行了分析和设计,以LCOD原型生命周期为基础,使用了面对组件的设计模式,设计和实现了软件功能,使得该系统具有一定的兼容性和可移植性,并且为扩展留下了接口,同时保证了校准数据的可靠性和精确性。     

Automated testing

Since the DoD was the leader in incorporating transistors, ICs and embedded processors, they also were on the forefront in developing automatic test equipment. The term automatic test equipment (ATE) encompasses all phases of computer controlled testing. It is based on the integration of instruments, computers and software. These systems generally include five basic elements: control, stimulus, measurement, switching and software. A special interface device or interface test adapter connects the unit under test (UUT) to the ATE. Test program software connects the ATE to the appropriate UUT test points, programs the input stimulus and monitors the output response     

机载计算机ATE计量校准软件的研究与设计

全面有效地计量校准军用ATE,对保证其正确性有效性非常重要.设计开发ATE计量校准程序,可以实现ATE自动化整体原位校准,提高计量保障效率和测试质量.介绍了机栽计算机ATE计量校准软件的系统结构,重点讨论了计量校准程序结构和面向信号的程序开发方法,最后描述了计量校准程序流程和实现方法.     

Sustainment of legacy automatic test systems: lessons learned on TPS transportability

Sustainment of legacy automatic test systems (ATS) saves cost through the re-use of software and hardware. The ATS consists of the automatic test equipment (ATE), the test program sets (TPSs), and associated software. The associated software includes the architecture the TPSs run on, known as the control software or test station test executive. In some cases, to sustain the legacy ATS, it is more practical to develop a replacement ATE with the latest instrumentation, often in the form of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware and software. The existing TPSs, including their hardware and test programs, then need to be transported, or translated, to the new test station. In order to understand how to sustain a legacy ATS by translating TPSs, one must realize the full architecture of the legacy ATS to be replaced. It must be understood that TPS transportability does not only include translating the original TPS from an existing language (such as ATLAS) to a new language (such as "C") to run on a new test station, but includes transporting the run-time environment created by the legacy ATS. This paper examines the similarities and differences of legacy ATE and modern COTS ATE architectures, how the ATS testing philosophy impacts the ease of TPS transportability from legacy ATE to modern-day platforms, and what SEI has done to address the issues that arise out of TPS transportability.     

New approaches to weapon system testing or “back to thefuture”

This paper proposes abandoning the use of multipurpose ATE for “horizontal” support of weapon systems in favor of returning to “vertical” support. An R&D effort is proposed to develop a software “hot mock-up” system for field testing weapon system assemblies     

综合模块化航空电子系统软件体系结构综述

作为降低系统生命周期费用（LCC）、控制软件复杂性、提高软件复用程度的重要手段之一,软件体系结构已成为航空计算领域的一个主要研究方向。阐述了综合模块化航空电子（IMA）的理念,分析了推动IMA产生和发展的主要因素。总结了ARINC 653,ASAAC,GOA以及F-22通用综合处理机（CIP）上的软件体系结构研究成果,并讨论了IMA软件体系结构需要解决的若干问题及其发展趋势。在此基础上,对中国综合航电软件体系结构研究提出了一些见解。     

一种基于模型和原型系统仿真的综合模块化航空电子系统开发方法

针对综合模块化航空电子系统的复杂性和传统瀑布式开发方法存在的问题与挑战,在Ⅴ型开发模型的基础上提出了一种基于模型和原型仿真的综合模块化航空电子系统的开发方法.该方法通过在需求捕获、方案设计和工程开发阶段分别构建相应的原型系统进行仿真与验证,实现对系统需求进行早期需求确认与设计验证(V&V)、原型仿真与集成.采用该方法的...     

Reconfigurable COTS test systems

Automatic Test Equipment (ATE) systems are used to qualify, accept, and troubleshoot electronic products. ATE systems may be in the form of large general-purpose systems that can test a wide variety of products or the more commonly used custom, turnkey systems that are designed for specific test application(s) and requirements. Turnkey ATE systems are labor-intensive; as a result, even a relatively simple turnkey tester is costly and may take months (or even years) to develop, integrate, and deploy. The main reason for this aspect of turnkey ATE systems is that even though the instrumentation may be off-the-shelf components, most everything else is custom and requires design, development, extensive debug and integration. Time and again, systems integrators have tried to find a solution that would combine the cost effectiveness of COTS systems with the flexibility of custom ATE. This paper suggests a solution to this problem and that it is feasible to combine COTS testers with custom requirements. This solution, called CreATE, provides a flexible architecture using COTS components (including instruments, cabling and interfacing products)     

Next generation test support systems for the aircraft life cycle

The objective of this paper is to present the experience of EADS in using a common test support system for integration and qualification testing, aircraft ground equipment (AGE), in-service software maintenance facilities (ISMF) and ground crew training. EADS uses its test support system AIDASS (Advanced Integrated Data Acquisition and Stimulation System) in different phases of the aircraft life cycle. AIDASS is comprised of a real-time front-end system and a standard PC for the user interface. The EADS test support system is used in almost all phases of the aircraft life cycle, for instance, for integration and verification testing, as aircraft ground equipment, for in-service software maintenance and training of ground crews. This test support system is used for the software maintenance in the TORNADO program at different airforces in Europe. The airforces also share test setups with industry     

民用飞机冲压空气涡轮系统适航工程技术研究

冲压空气涡轮系统是一种飞机应急能源,其在紧急情况下为飞机提供应急液压源和/或应急电源,对飞机应对紧急情况至关重要。参照AP-21-AA-2011-03-R4中关于航空器生命周期审定过程划分及合格审定活动,结合某型民用飞机冲压空气涡轮系统研制过程,从识别审定基础开始,将适航条款转化成需求,落实到产品设计中,明确条款的符合性方法和验证思路,并给出民用飞机冲压空气涡轮系统适航工程技术的工作流程和方法。此套工作流程已通过某型民用飞机冲压空气涡轮系统的研制进行了初步验证,可为国内民用飞机机载系统的研制及取证过程提供参考。     

机载设备软件需求获取过程研究

DO-178B机载设备软件的开发指南,规定了软件生存周期中各个过程的目标以及完成目标的活动和证据;但是DO-178B标准中没有给出软件需求获取的具体过程.针对机载设备软件AE653/Cert的认证过程进行研究,诠释需求获取过程中的建模方法和原则,给出需求获取过程的具体描述及其变更控制和配置管理.最后通过分析验证软件需求获取过程生成的需求和工作产品可以符合DO-178B的目标,为机载软件开发过程的需求获取提供了参考依据.     

The use of model-based test requirements throughout the productlife cycle

Test requirements, which are generally collected in multiple disparate formats throughout the life cycle of an electronic product, could be used in various applications that reduce test and development cycle times and increase the confidence in the final test program. Unfortunately, test requirements are seldom captured in a consistent format that may be processed by a computer, thus eliminating the possibility of using such requirements in an engineering application. Additionally, such an approach disallows test requirements captured in one segment of the product life cycle to be reused in subsequent life cycle stages. This paper describes a model-based methodology, specifically the Test Requirements Model (TeRM), which can be shown to facilitate the transfer of test-related product information between various stages of the life cycle. This transportability, in conjunction with an exchange format that can be processed by a computer, permits test requirement information to support value-added applications in the engineering process throughout the life cycle of a product     

基于虚拟仪器技术的直升机机载电子设备故障检测系统设计

本文以陆航某部ATE的设计过程为基础,介绍了直升机机载电子设备故障检测系统的硬件组成,并详细阐述了系统软件平台的层次结构和设计方法。