Abstract
Parallel test is an efficient approach for improving test efficiency in the aerospace field. To meet the challenges of implementing multiunit parallel test in practical projects, this paper presented a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model for solving the task scheduling problem. A novel sequence-based iterative (SBI) method is proposed to solve the model in reasonable time. The SBI method is composed of an implied sequence finding procedure (ISF) and a sequence-based iterative optimization (SBIO) procedure. The first procedure can reduce the search space by fixing free sequence variables according to the original test flowcharts, and the second procedure can solve the model iteratively in a reasonable amount of time. In addition, two indexes, namely, speed rate and average resource utilization rate, are introduced to evaluate the proposed methods comprehensively. Computational results indicate that the proposed method performs well in real-world test examples, especially for larger examples that cannot be solved by the full-space method. Furthermore, it is proved that the essence of the parallel test is trading space for time.
Highlights
In the aerospace field, test is an essential procedure in the manufacturing of aircraft, missiles, and satellites to guarantee the functional integrity
All the examples were solved on a PC with an Intel Core i5-4590 3.3 GHz CPU using CPLEX 12.6. e relative optimality tolerance was set to 0.1%. e other CPLEX options have been set as the default for all models
K1 1 e task-resource dependency matrix and corresponding test time are shown in Table 3. e configurations of the 7 examples are given in Table 4. e test flowcharts of 3 unit under test (UUT) are presented in Figure 7. e small examples (1, 2, and 3) each involve only one UUT. e medium examples
Summary
Test is an essential procedure in the manufacturing of aircraft, missiles, and satellites to guarantee the functional integrity. Every piece of equipment is a system of multiple relatively independent subsystems. The relatively independent subsystem to be tested is called the unit under test (UUT), and the corresponding test items are called test tasks. The UUTs of an aerospace equipment will be tested sequentially [1, 2] using an automatic test system (ATS), which provides the necessary resources for test tasks. With the increase of test workload, sequential test severely restricts the efficiency of equipment support. Parallel test means that multiple UUTs can be tested at the same time and that multiple test tasks can be performed at the same time, which can improve test efficiency without increasing the cost [4, 5]
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