N101-029 TITLE: Automated Generation of Advanced Test Diagrams to Reduce Test Program Set Life-Cycle Costs

TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Information Systems

ACQUISITION PROGRAM: PMA-260, Aviation Support Equipment Program Office

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TITLE: Automated Generation of Advanced Avionics Test Wiring Diagrams to Reduce Avionics Test Program Set Life-Cycle Costs

OBJECTIVE: Develop an automated solution to generate advanced test wiring diagrams to support Test Program Sets (TPSs) for avionics that allows for the inclusion of electrical signal data in the test diagram.

DESCRIPTION: Test wiring diagrams are an important feature for avionics TPS support and are useful throughout the TPS life cycle. They are used as a guide in troubleshooting the TPS and avionics Automatic Test System (ATS) when tests fail to run properly, can be a key factor in ensuring the ATS are ready to support the weapon system, and can be used to determine how a TPS can be re-hosted on other ATS. Test wiring diagrams provide the active wire path information for stimulus and measurement signals from the ATS instruments to the avionics unit under test (UUT) for each test in the program. Typically, test wiring diagram generation requires extensive manual analysis of test program source code, interface hardware, and test station capabilities. An automated process should significantly reduce the time to generate test wiring diagrams, increase the accuracy of test diagrams, ensure consistency between test diagrams and modified TPSs, and use an open systems approach relying on IEEE automatic test markup language (ATML) standards for data formats.

Typically, test wiring diagrams are created after the avionics test program is integrated onto the ATS and the TPS software and hardware are completed. These diagrams show TPS developers and maintainers the paths that electrical currents flow through the wires and switches in the Interconnect Device (ID) and the ATS so that complete paths can be shown from the UUT to the ATS instruments. With the proposed automated process, the advanced test wiring diagrams can be generated during TPS development and can be used to assist in the integration of the TPS. The additional signal description information, not present in typical test diagrams, can greatly enhance the troubleshooting process. These concepts can result in decreasing the TPS development time. Additionally, the reliance on an extensive manual process often hinders the updating of test diagrams when the TPSs are modified, due to either new versions of the UUTs or changes in test station instrumentation. This results in the test diagrams quickly becoming outdated and of little value in understanding the electrical currents and signals flowing between the UUT and the ID/ATS to effectively diagnose problems in the UUT. The automation of test diagrams ensures that the diagrams are always consistent with the test program.

The proposed approach for the description of the test station and interface adapter hardware should be based on the IEEE 1671 ATML standards. Using a standard data format will make this process easily transportable to other test station platforms. An automated advanced test diagram generation system used on a DoD ATS station such as the Consolidated Automated Support System (CASS) and require a minimum of TPS knowledge to operate, is desirable.

PHASE I: Determine the feasibility of automatically generating avionics test wiring diagrams that support avionics TPSs. Determine how the current test wiring diagrams can be augmented to include stimulus and measurement signal information.

PHASE II: Develop a complete set of prototype tools that will automatically generate advanced test wiring diagrams. These will include ATML test station and ATML test adapter instance documents, the test program signal extraction software, and the automatic test diagram generation software. Demonstrate and validate the prototype software to generate ATML instance documents using a DoD TPS as the target.

PHASE III: Transition the software tools and processes to DoD ATS programs such as CASS.

PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL The need for improvement of avionics test program support in ATS is common throughout the DoD and commercial industry, as is the pressure of reduced budgets. The similarities in ATS and TPS development applications allows for leveraging of solutions across the DoD and industry. Specific commercial applications include the airline, medical, and automotive industries.

REFERENCES:
1. The DoD Automatic Test System Framework Roadmap; http://www.acq.osd.mil/ats/

2. Automatic Test Markup Language IEEE STD1671; http://standards.ieee.org/

KEYWORDS: Automatic Test Systems; Test Diagrams; DoD ATS Framework Working Group; Test Program Set; Automatic Test Markup Language; Interoperability

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