IoT-enabled communication systems in testing environments

Abstract

Testing systems are preliminary designed for specific use cases to validate the proper functional correctness of goods and complex products. Therefore, testing systems are highly focused on a specific functional purpose. The characteristic of a unique design in testing systems leads to high development and manufacturing costs of the testing system itself whilst little numbers are produced. Due to fast developments in products that are driven by economic competition and customer-related requirements, testing systems become obsolete over time and decreasing ever-shorter life cycles. Keeping testing systems economically efficient and consequently avoiding higher product prices, the obsolescence in testing systems need to be reduced by expanding their lifetime from a PLM perspective. Recycling and re-using single components or modules of testing systems is a predetermined approach to address the mentioned problem. Additionally, the new approaches and communication technologies that are emerging in the field of the Internet of Things (IoT) are predestined to be integrated and can support the reduction of obsolescence in testing systems. Moreover, dependent on the domain where the testing system is applied, different norms and regulations need to be addressed. The presented solution in this paper is containing IoT applications and communication technologies applied in testing environments that are used in the avionic sector. It will show a proof of concept for a testing system, which is built in a modular way and composing an interconnection of resilient components that can work and be operated as conventional testing systems.