Multiple Test Executives in ATE

Managing Automatic Test Systems in the 90's is more than writing BASIC test programs to control IEEE 488 instruments. Managing your Automatic Test System involves Test Program Set (TPS) development, management of re-usable test objects, data management, tester resource management and user interface management. In addition, the Automatic Test System must provide a Test Executive that controls the overall test development and execution environments. The benefits of this type of system are, lower TPS development cost, a common user interface and lower TPS development cost, a common user interface and lower operator training cost. This paper focuses on these aspects of Automatic Test System Management. >

This paper outlines an approach to developing an emulation environment embedded in an automated test system (ATS) controller's operating system kernel. By taking this approach, it is possible to design an emulator that is built for multiple ATS environments, allowing it to be seamlessly ported from ATS to ATS for use with many different test program sets (TPS). This paper then explores possible uses for such an emulator for the purpose of reducing the life-cycle costs associated with ATS and TPS development and maintenance.

This paper discusses a practical approach to the use of Commercial-Off-the-Shelf (COTS) tools to implement Automatic Test Equipment (ATE) and Unit Under Test (UUT) signal-based models to support both new Test Program Set (TPS) development and TPS rehost activities. This modeling technique also provides a standard to which existing and future ATEs and UUTs can be modeled and used for analysis and comparisons. The signal-based model is implemented via a Structured Query Language (SQL) Relational Data Base Management System (RDBMS). COTS Rapid Application Development (RAD) tools, such as Microsoft/sup (R)/ Visual Basic/sup (R)/ Microsoft Access/sup (R)/ and PowerBuilder/sup (R)/, are employed to implement interfaces to the SQL database model and to provide the necessary algorithms for data comparison, model reuse and other manipulations of the model data. After models are established for both the ATE and UUTs, ATU/UUT compatibility analysis can be performed to identify any potential incompatibilities. This information can be used to optimize the selection of a target ATE for a selected group of UUTs. It can also be used to identify any signal deficiencies in the target ATE that require ATE enhancements or Interface Test Adapter (ITA) signal conditioning, to ensure UUT compatibility.

The Versatile Automated Depot Test Station (VDATS) is a major component in solving the U.S. Air Forcepsilas Automatic Test System (ATS) proliferation concerns. VDATS addresses the proliferation issue by providing the capability to replace an estimated 260 depot-level test systems that assume 150 different configurations, as well as a large number of intermediate-level test systems.The Department of Defense (DoD) has invested billions of dollars in aging and increasingly obsolete ATS used to troubleshoot and diagnose components of military aircraft and weapon systems. The issues of increased downtimes, test system obsolescence, and nonportable Test Program Sets (TPS) further contributes to the DoD's continued reporting of spare parts shortages and the increasing impacts that ATS obsolescence has on the readiness of military aircraft and weapon systems. The VDATS provides a viable approach to resolving these issues. VDATS has an extensible designed-in expansion capability intended to support present and future Air Force workloads by providing an organically-developed ATS platform with a modular, open-systems architecture that is Flexible, Capable, Tailorable, and Sustainable. VDATS makes it technically feasible to now realize the laudable 1994 DoD policy goal stated in: Military Readiness: DoD Needs to Better Manage Automatic Test Equipment Modernization," GAO-03-451, March 2003.[1] VDATS meets this stated DoD policy goal of producing an ATS capable of supporting multiple weapon systems, aircraft, and eventually being interoperable between DoD services. In 2007 the Air Force's VDATS was officially designated as a DoD Standard Family of Testers, supporting the 2005 ATS Master Plan requirement meant to reduce ATS proliferation and life-cycle operations and support costs. This paper briefly examines the present-day issues and how the U.S. Air Force is resolving these with the VDATS program. It also explains the strategy to preserve present-day and near-future TPS re- host investments, while enhancing system capabilities to meet the Air Force's depot and intermediate-level ATS requirements for the foreseeable future.

This paper describes research related to the development of fast compression end playback routines for full screen, full motion color video and audio suitable for use on the IFTE Soldier Portable On-line Repair Tool (SPORT). This multimedia capability can be included as part of an interactive electronic technical manual (IETM). or incorporated into automatic test equipment (ATE) executive end test program set (TPS) application software. The technical innovations required to achieve the requisite high compression ratio while still preserving good image quality needed for use in ATE applications is described. The benefits or this capability for use in maintenance training, unit under test (UTT) setup and connection. And diagnostic procedures will also be discussed. In addition, we will describe methods that can be used to distribute and update multimedia sequences in deployed systems.

For decades, the automatic test community has worked to develop hardware standardization and interface protocols that aid in mitigating the impact of equipment obsolescence on the repair and maintenance mission. The traditional view of Test Program Set (TPS) transportability in this environment has always been one of migrating a legacy TPS to a new hardware architecture design born out of a need to replace aging technology or provide new test capability. The Department of Defense (DoD) has recognized the benefit of standardizing automatic test systems (ATS) through policy guidance whose intent is to drive the services to a common configuration test environment, thereby reducing life cycle sustainment costs for all DoD systems. Today, hardware standardization has advanced to the point that many ATS look and function very similar to one another. However, there are two major hurdles that continuously thwart our efforts to develop a standard core test system, the lack of a standard UUT interface and the lack of an open architecture software design that facilitates operations in any environment and on any test system architecture. Automatic Test Markup Language (ATML) provides promise with regards to the development of standardized test software interfaces. Developing a standard hardware configuration for all test requirements is ultimately achievable with the technology currently available today except for one simple but hugely significant hurdle, the cost involved in re-hosting the myriad of test program sets currently in existence. Therefore, any significant advance in common interface design has to take into account the need to minimize the impact to existing test program sets. This paper will seek to explore the various technological possibilities for overcoming the barriers to true TPS transportability that exist in today's automatic test community.

The purpose of this paper is to present a conceptual approach and to make practical recommendations on how to improve the current Automatic Test Equipment (ATE) testing and maintenance capabilities by utilizing the existing cloud computing model to build a globally linked ATE maintenance system. The basic tenet of the ATE community is to support a multi-tiered maintenance concept which, in general, is a three tiered system that is composed of organizational maintenance (O-level), intermediate maintenance (I-level), and depot maintenance (D-level) organizations. The goal of the ATE is to (1) quickly and accurately detect and isolate each fault, (2) provide software tools for analyzing historical data, and (3) gather, manage, and distribute accurate and reliable maintenance information for the failed Unit Under Test (UUT). The ATE system should provide services that will (1) maintain a repository of information that will improve fault detection and isolation, allow for off-platform assessments, document failures, and help quantify corrective actions, (2) reduce false UUT pulls, and (3) reduce repair time by prompting repair procedures. Furthermore, the ATE system should provide additional services that will help optimize the time to diagnose problems by using collected failure information and by recommending entry points into the Test Program Set (TPS) software. It should also present information to the ATE maintainer to aid in informed repair decisions which could be in the form of pilot debrief results, platform Built In Test (BIT) results, O-level test outcomes and corrective actions, and maintenance and usage history of the platform and UUT. So, based on this definition of ATE maintenance the use of cloud computing can be used to provide services to improve the overall ATE testing throughput which will result in bottom line improvements to ATE life cycle costs. By using cloud computing, which is defined to be “a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction”, users can develop cloud computing models that will provide access to application software and databases that can be used to build a globally linked ATE maintenance system. This paper will discuss the essential characteristics of the cloud computing models and define the various flavors of cloud offerings available to designers today. This paper will also analyze the cloud computing model to arrive at a conceptual approach that can be used to enhance the current ATE Testing and Maintenance capabilities. Practical recommendations will be discussed on how to transform the current ATE Testing and Maintenance capabilities into the specific cloud computing model offerings in order to help configure a globally linked ATE maintenance system.

The portable intelligent troubleshooter (POINTER) system, originally developed for manual fault isolation, has been applied to intelligent automatic testing, which requires a fresh look at test program set (TPS) design from the perspective of testability theory and artificial intelligence. The resulting novel automatic test and diagnostic approach is a significant departure from conventional test programming techniques. A prototype automatic test equipment (ATE) system that implements a diagnostic control algorithm that computes a context-sensitive test strategy in real time has been developed. This control algorithm operates on a dependency model that describes the testability characteristics of the unit under test (UUT) and a test procedures file that contains the instrumentation setup for each test available for the UUT. This approach to automated diagnostics reduces time and costs in UUT repair. >

Migration, maintenance and regression of more than three hundred (300) Test Program Set (TPS) to support all existing (i.e., Consolidated Automated Support System (CASS) and Reconfigurable Transportable Consolidated Automated Support System (RTCASS)) and future (e.g., electronic Consolidated Automated Support System (eCASS)) CASS Family Automated Test Equipment (ATE) members can be an overwhelming task that requires compilation and build of source, translation, data transfer and data validation. CASS family automation tools can help TPS developers create and execute from Personal Computer (PC) environment CASS Virtual Address extension (VAX) Digital Command Line (DCL) scripting files without physically being on an ATE station; make Magneto-Optical (MO) disks (without user intervention) from VAX backup save set files; make automated Version Description Document (VDD) reports at Operational Test Program Set (OTPS) level; identify and fix corrupted Master Test Program Set Index (MTPSI) files; identify corrupted CASS Abbreviated Test Language for All Systems (ATLAS) files; identify missing CASS files (ATLAS source ATLAS lookup, graphics, backup save set, Digital Test Language, Digital Automated Test Program Generation (DATPG), shutdown, data, subassembly and Functional Extension Program); validate and create Automated Test System (ATS) Source Data Repository (ASDR) directory structure; create file list inventories for Configuration Management (CM) and Quality Assurance (QA); have a visual representation of the MTPSI card; and provide support for the Next Generation Operations Management Software (NxOMS) communication. This paper will demonstrate improvements from our previous suite of automation tools, before and after figures showing tools benefits, and faced hardware challenges.

It is the mandate of Automated Test Equipment (ATE) to minimize manual tasking and maximize automation. However, the role of the operator remains crucial to successful deployment of any ATE system. Simple tasks such as setting up the Unit Under Test (UUT), correct probing, potentiometer alignments, etc. must be taught so new operators can establish a basic level of diagnostic capability in the fleet. Current Consolidated Automated Support System (CASS) training hardware is based on F-14 and S-3 platforms which are obsolete, utilize antiquated technology, and are difficult to repair. Such hardware also limits Instructors' ability to insert and remove effective training faults. This paper describes a design concept which provides a robust training test set, including hardware, for operators to learn basic troubleshooting skills and ATE interaction. The US Navy recognized the benefits of such a system to address training deficiencies and initiated the development and acquisition of the CASS Training Set (CATS). The test set includes a variety of training scenarios which are commonly seen in the fleet, including digital tests, analog tests, Operational Flight Program (OFP) loads, alignments, Radio Frequency (RF) tests, diagnostics, etc. The CATS training UUT uses latching relays to induce consistent, repeatable hardware faults, and a microcontroller to produce software faults. Faults are applied and removed through the Test Program Set (TPS) and require no soldering or de-soldering of components. This process automates training fault insertion, extends the life of the training equipment, and provides repeatable fault signatures. Consistent training scenarios ensure lower variance in technical capabilities of course graduates. A complete hardware and software package with the look-and-feel of a fleet avionics asset, but the reliability to withstand a training environment provides a valuable tool to train ATE operators and should be a basic part of any ATE system.

New software technologies, including the World Wide Web, may seem far removed from the tasks facing test program set (TPS) developers, but they promise to revolutionize the way TPS data is organized, presented, and used. This paper will describe how an integrated TPS development and execution environment can capitalize on these new technologies to improve test programming efficiency.

New software technologies, including the World Wide Web, may seem far removed from the tasks facing test program set (TPS) developers, but they promise to revolutionize the way TPS data is organized, presented, and used. This paper will describe how an integrated TPS development and execution environment can capitalize on these new technologies to improve test programming efficiency.

In military and aerospace applications test systems are expected to have a service life of more than 20 years. Over the life of the test system individual test instruments may become obsolete or may require upgrading due to changes in TPS requirements. Any changes to these legacy test instruments may cause problems with the deployed Test Program Set (TPS). Most test systems are designed with an instrument wrapper layer to isolate the TPS developer from the instrument driver Application Programming Interface (API). This wrapper layer will minimize the changes to the TPS due to changes in individual test instruments. This paper discusses some of the issues that may be encountered when either replacing obsolete instrumentation or upgrading instrumentation in a test system. Some of the issues are easy to discover and understand such as minor differences in the instrument specifications between the legacy test instrument and the replacement instrument. Other issues may not become apparent until attempting to use the replacement instrument within a test program or when upgrading system checkers. For example a test program may fail with a replacement instrument due to signal settling time. This problem can occur when the replacement instrument performs measurements faster than the legacy instrument. The problem can be fixed by either adding a wait in the test program or by adding a trigger delay in the test program or wrapper. The main focus of this paper will be on the problems related to the replacement of analog instruments. This paper will not discuss issues related to differences in the instrument driver API since this can usually be handled in the instrument wrapper layer. The problem discussions will look at classes of problems and site some specific examples in each class. Guidelines will be presented for solving or avoiding the problem. Some of this information may also be useful in the design of future test systems and TPSs to avoid similar issues.

Santa Barbara Infrared, Inc. has deployed IRWindows as an Electro-Optical test development and execution environment for military Test Program Sets (TPS). Advantages of TPS development for EO systems in the IRWindows environment are seen compared to the TPS development in ATLAS. The advantages of the IRWindows environment are: 1. Faster learning curve (graphical user interface is easier than test line interface) 2. Faster TPS development time (real time changes and asset control interface allows for faster development) 3. Asset control panel allows user to control assets real time and monitor all asset functions during development 4. Unit Under Test (UUT) image viewer allows user to set test parameters like Region of Interest more easily and more precisely 5. Continuous mode tests (like MTF allows user to real time adjustments) 6. Open architecture for test modifications This paper will outline the details of how these advantages are utilized and how not only development time is decreased but also how test execution time can be minimized making traditionally long TPS run times on EO systems more efficient.

This paper addresses using information derived from Built-in-Test (BIT) to fault diagnose Units Under Test (UUTs), wherever possible. This philosophic approach to diagnostic testing is not new. It has been studied over the past 20 years under the visor of "Integrated Diagnostics", but it has yet to be truly implemented in a "real life" military diagnostic test environment. The mindset of Test Program Set design engineering, along with customer and contractor management alike, remains "complete diagnostic testing based upon single catastrophic component failure modes". If we are to generate cost efficient Test Program Sets (TPSs) under reduced military budget constraints, this will have to change! The test engineer must be encouraged to use methodologies to speed up development time and decrease TPS run times. Using present technology, this is possible now, and as the technology matures, will become a truly viable approach in the future. For the purpose of this paper, the author relies heavily on his extensive US Navy Automatic Test Equipment (ATE) and Test Program Set (TPS) experience, as well as on previous studies performed on using BIT to fault diagnose Unit Under Test failures on US Naval Air weapon systems.