Avionics Test Research Articles

Optical Wireless Communication in an Avionics Test Facility for Spacecrafts

Optical Wireless Communication in an Avionics Test Facility for Spacecrafts

Electronics Design and Testing of the KREPE Atmospheric Entry Capsule Avionics

Electronics Design and Testing of the KREPE Atmospheric Entry Capsule Avionics

Industry 4.0 Technologies as an Obsolescence Mitigator for Testing of Mechatronic Systems in Aviation

Companies building products with a usage phase of 25 years and more, have suffered from obsolescence for decades. Software and hardware components inside of the supporting systems, such as avionics test benches, are particularly affected. They consist of components built for 3–7 years but expected to operate for decades. The lack of standardized, open and modular systems for special timing constraints increase the pressure and impede the interoperability in this field. Industry 4.0 systems offer exactly this, but do not support aviation standards. The research in this article aims to show that it is possible to use widespread Industry 4.0 standards and technology at the field level to achieve transferability and maintainability in the operation of test benches. This article describes an implemented and evaluated proof of concept of the implementation of an industrial ethernet standard EtherCAT for the ARINC 429 I/O for an aviation test bench. As a baseline, market available EtherCAT components were evaluated and selected. For the client development, standard components for the EtherCAT logic and ARINC 429 were used. Additionally, the full interoperability at the syntax level, was achieved by implementing a configuration approach of the I/O, in order to encode and decode the messages. The evaluation was performed using an Airbus A350-1000 test bench for secondary flight controls—namely the HighLift system.

Adaptive Test Feedback Loop: A Modeling Approach for Checking Side Effects during Test Execution in Advised Explorative Testing

<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">The main objective of testing is to evaluate the functionality, reliability, and operational safety of products. However, this objective makes testing a complex and expensive stage in the development process. From the perspective of an aircraft OEM, test cases are used to verify integration, system, and application levels. Therefore, test cases certify the products against the requirements using the black box testing approach. In doing so, a test plan defines a sequence of test cases whereby it sets up the environment, stimulates the fault, and then observes the system under test (SUT) for each case. Subsequently, the postprocessing of the test execution classifies the test plan as passed or failed. The ongoing digitization and interconnectedness between aircraft systems increase the complexity in functional testing. This trend leads to a high number of test cases and a multitude of reasons why a specific test-case fails. A corresponding error analysis and adaptation of the test plan is a complex and lengthy process that starts repeatedly after executing a manually updated test plan. The goal of the developed approach is to reduce the amount and the duration of the time-consuming trial and error approach. Therefore, the paper proposes the advised “free testing” as an extension of existing functional test processes. The proposal enables the adaptive test feedback loop. It covers the adaption of a current test execution as soon as faulty behavior is detected recursively. The adaption is based on proposals, which are calculated on basis of a knowledge base and selected by a test engineer. For this purpose, the paper proposes a new tool landscape. It describes the required functionality for a test bed. Finally, the paper evaluates the benefits of an adaptive test feedback loop based on an avionics test scenario.</div></div>

FPGA-Centric Design Process for Avionic Simulation and Test

Real-time computing systems are increasingly used in aerospace and avionic industries. In the face of power challenge, performance requirements and demands for higher flexibility, hardware designers are directed toward reconfigurable computing using field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) that offer high computation rates per watt and adaptability to the application constraints. However, considering reconfigurable computing in the avionic design process leads to several challenges for system developers. Indeed, such technology should be validated along the verification & validation cycle starting with simulation tools, passing through the test benches and finishing with the integration phase. For each step, the FPGA can play an essential role to achieve better performances, more adaptive systems, and cost-effective solutions. In this paper, we present a seamless FPGA-centric design process for avionic equipments. Along this process, we redefine the role of the FPGA circuits to cover the simulation, the test, and the integration steps. First, reconfigurable logics are used in the frame of heterogeneous CPU/FPGA computing in order to obtain high speed-up for real-time avionic simulation. The proposed environment supports dynamic execution model enabling reconfiguration during runtime to avoid the timing constraint violation. Second, the FPGA is used as a key solution to offer versatile test benches and to converge toward unified test and simulation tools. We have designed several commercial input output intellectual property systems with dynamic runtime reconfiguration capabilities, in order to mitigate component obsolescence and to provide increased flexibility and decreased design time. Third, at the integration phase, we use the conventional tools to make profit from reconfigurable technology in embedded avionic applications in order to deliver high computation rates and to adapt their functioning mode to provide reliability, fault tolerance, deterministic timing guarantees, and energy efficiency.

DOL-BIP-Critical: a tool chain for rigorous design and implementation of mixed-criticality multi-core systems

Mixed-criticality systems are promoted in industry due to their potential to reduce size, weight, power, and cost. Nonetheless, deploying mixed-criticality applications on commercial multi-core platforms remains a highly challenging problem. To name a few reasons: (i) Industrial mixed-criticality applications are usually complex reactive applications, which cannot be specified by traditional, e.g., dataflow-based, models of computation. Appropriate mixed-criticality models of computation built upon Vestal’s assumptions are missing; (ii) Scheduling such applications on multicores with shared resources, such as memory buses, requires that any timing interference among applications of different criticality is bounded in order to guarantee—the necessary for certification—temporal isolation and to enable incremental design; (iii) The implementation of isolation-preserving mixed-criticality schedulers is itself subject to certification. Hence, it needs to be not only efficient, but also provably correct. This paper proposes, for the first time, a complete design flow covering all aspects from specification, using a novel mixed-criticality aware model of computation (DOL-Critical), to correct-by-construction implementation, using the principle ‘what you verify is what you generate’ which is based on a novel variant of task automata. We demonstrate the applicability of our design flow with an industrial avionic test case on the state-of-the-art Kalray MPPA®-256.

An Approach to Develop a Remotely Operated Integrated Avionics Test Suit

AbstractIntegration testing and functional validation & verification are few of the key phases of Aircraft Development Life Cycle. This is performed by integrating the avionic system on complex dynamic test platforms in a controlled lab environment. The avionic systems are in general, composed of a combination of multiple LRUs (Line Replaceable Units) / LRMs (Line Replaceable Modules). Test platforms referred to as Integrated test benches (ITB) comprise of dynamic aircraft simulation models running on multiple host computers, IO servers, breakouts, power supply control units and internal airflow management modules for avionics cooling. This paper proposes a means of making the Integration Test Benches remotely available across multiple locations seamlessly, without incurring substantial cost, thereby eliminating the need for building and maintaining the test benches at multiple locations. This approach explores a novel technique that can be leveraged to make a single bench accessible globally within the organization by leveraging various concepts of IOT (Internet of things) and cloud technology.

KALİBRASYON LABORATUVARLARI İÇİN SAYISAL SICAKLIK-NEM ÖLÇER KAYIT CİHAZININ TASARIM VE GERÇEKLEŞTİRİMİ

Calibration laboratory environments such as temperature and humidity values will be recorded continuously monitored and it is important for testing and measuring instruments. In this study, electronic, mechanical and avionics (aircraft) testing and measuring instruments for calibration laboratories temperature and humidity values constantly observing the recording used in the analog measuring instrument rather economical and accurate digital measuring instruments have been proposed for this purpose an application has been developed. The developed application / device deviation tests were conducted at TUBITAK-UME and reliability has been verified.

Test Languages for In-the-Loop Avionics Tests

The current state of the art of in-the-loop testing of avionics embedded systems is very heterogeneous, with many different in-house test languages, and it is unable to respond to the evolving needs of the stakeholders in this field. To lay the foundations of more homogeneous test development solutions, this paper offers an overview and analysis of the features of six different test languages. Best practices and pitfalls to avoid are discussed. The analysis focuses on four major categories of features: test organization, abstraction of and access to the system under test interfaces, test language instructions, and time management. Four of the test languages in the sample set are currently employed in the field of avionics. The other two, used, respectively, in the automotive and telecommunications industries, have been chosen for comparison purposes. The paper reports the key findings of the analysis and presents the resulting ongoing research work.

Design and Implementation of Intermediate Frequency Generation and Analysis Module for Avionics Test

To test airborne avionics device, it is necessary to provide signal stimulus for the device under test (DUT) to simulate the real work environment. This paper proposes a hardware module which used to signal generate and analyze. The hardware structure and diagram of logic design are described. The generated waveforms and measurement results are presented. This test module combined with other necessary modules can achieve the test of L band airborne avionics such as ATC, TCAS and TACAN.

The Effect of the Negotiator's Social Power as a Function of the Counterpart's Emotional Reactions in a Computer Mediated Negotiation

A negotiator’s own power and their counterpart’s emotional reaction to the negotiation both influence the outcome of negotiations. The present research addressed the question of their relative importance. On one hand, social power should be potent regardless of the other’s emotions. On the other hand, the counterpart’s emotional reactions inform about the ongoing state of the negotiation, and as such are more diagnostic than the more distal power cue. In a simulated computer mediated negotiation, 248 participants assumed the role of a vendor of computerized avionics test equipment and their objective was to negotiate the price, the warranty period, and the number of software updates that the buyer will receive free of charge. Participants negotiated the sale after being primed with either high or low power or not primed at all (control condition). They received information that their counterpart was either happy or angry or emotionally neutral. The findings showed that even though power was an important factor at the start of negotiations, the informative value of emotion information took precedence over time. This implies that emotional information may erase any advantage that counterparts have in a negotiation thanks to their higher social power.

Cockpit Display System Simulation of General Aviation Aircraft Based on VAPS XT

This paper introduces a recent study of Cockpit Display System (CDS) simulation for general aviation aircraft. The cockpit display simulation system is developed for avionics system integration and test by using VAPS XT software. This paper describes the cycle of developing human-machine interfaces (HMI) with VAPS XT, designs the Primary Flight Display (PFD) and Multi-functional Display (MFD) interfaces based on system requirements, and analyzes key technologies in the simulation process. The simulation result is proved to have good real-time effect and high fidelity and the simulation system has gained favorable effects in the exploitation of a practical avionics project.

A General Method for Module Automatic Testing in Avionics Systems

The traditional Automatic Test Equipment (ATE) systems are insufficient to cope with the challenges of testing more and more complex avionics systems. In this study, we propose a general method for module automatic testing in the avionics test platform based on PXI bus. We apply virtual instrument technology to realize the automatic testing and the fault reporting of signal performance. Taking the avionics bus ARINC429 as an example, we introduce the architecture of automatic test system as well as the implementation of algorithms in Lab VIEW. The comprehensive experiments show the proposed method can effectively accomplish the automatic testing and fault reporting of signal performance. It greatly improves the generality and reliability of ATE in avionics systems.

A Design and Implementation of Avionics Test System for Virtual Flight Simulation

In this paper, the virtual flight simulation environment for open-source-based avionics test system design and implementation. This paper is proposing an integrated avionics test system for flight manipulation and simulation using the commercial simulation and development software tools such as X-Plane, LabView, and Google Earth. The proposed system is designed of seven parts of user flight control, flight simulation, flight manipulation and verification, data link and distribution, map display, data interface, and actuation systems. For a specific planned flight path, it is found that the proposed system was well operated and could be used in the flight test system.

Designing and Realizing of Universal Test and Analysis System of Avionics Data Bus

In modern combat aircrafts, avionics integrated systems play an increasingly important role. Bus test and analysis system is used as a testing platform for the testing, debugging, maintenance and monitoring of airborne electronic equipment, which could rapidly detect and identify the working status of the bus. This paper discusses the general avionics data bus test system design and implementation, which focuses on the test system design, system management, software development, and the bus information flow management of the whole system. The universal test and analysis system is based on the bus test analysis platform of ICD database that can effectively test ARINC429 bus and 1553B bus. Through integrating the platform into the simulation system, it can complete the closed-loop test of the integrated avionics simulation test system, analyze the state changes of various information flows during the process of bus communication, test and verify the active status and logical sequence of avionic fire control test systems, which has achieved very good results in the practical engineering applications.

THE UNMANNED MISSION AVIONICS TEST HELICIOPTER – A FLEXIBLE AND VERSATILE VTOL-UAS EXPERIMENTAL SYSTEM

Abstract. civil customers. These applications cover a wide spectrum from R&D programs for the military customer to special services for the civil customer. This paper focuses on the technical conversion of a commercially available VTOL-UAS to ESG's Unmanned Mission Avionics Test Helicopter (UMAT), its concept and operational capabilities. At the end of the paper, the current integration of a radar sensor is described as an example of the UMATs flexibility. The radar sensor is developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for High Frequency Physics and Radar Techniques (FHR). It is integrated by ESG together with the industrial partner SWISS UAV.

Resolving test ambiguity with IEEE1641: Part 34 in a series of tutorials on instrumentation and measurement

IEEE 1641 [1] is a test language, and its key underlying principle is that all its test signals are supported by a mathematical foundation. Traditionally, test languages have been based on the specific instrumentation forming part of the automatic test system (ATS). Many ATSs have their own test language designed and configured for ease of use in the short term. This means that engineers typically use an inhouse test language to get a program operational without having to be concerned about long term maintainability; the program is discarded after a short term production run. This approach does not work with military and avionics test programs where long term support is paramount. The in-service life of many military vehicles and commercial aircraft is longer than the careers of many engineers; it is very rare that the group of engineers who created the original test programs is around when the programs need porting and re-commissioning twenty or thirty years later. In this situation, it is essential to use a standardized test language that can be supported long term. Automatic Test Language for All Systems (ATLAS) [2] served this purpose reasonably well for many years. However, even with versions controlled by IEEE and ARINC, implementations were often configured to be instrument and ATS specific and this rendered the application test programs (ATPs) difficult to re-host when the old ATSs were decommissioned.

Use of Double Bulk Current Injection for Susceptibility Testing of Avionics

<para xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> In this paper, possible applications of double bulk current injection for susceptibility testing of spacecraft are investigated and discussed. Two test procedures are proposed: one is suitable for system-level (i.e., onboard) testing, the other for unit-level assessment of avionic equipment interconnected by multiwire shielded bundles. By enforcing equivalence between radiation and injection, both procedures are designed to inject expected electromagnetic interference (EMI) levels in the equipment under test (EUT), connected at the terminations of a wiring harness. The procedure for system-level testing requires amplitude and phase control of the radio-frequency power sources used to feed the injection probes. It allows to correlate the susceptibility effects obtained by injection with those due to a nonuniform electromagnetic field (such as the field generated by internal EMI sources in metallic enclosures). It is, therefore, suited for radiated intrasystem verifications. The procedure for unit-level testing exploits equivalence between radiation and injection in terms of the current distribution along the overshield, and applies to bundles with an arbitrary number of inner conductors. In the case of vertical polarization, this procedure allows for the reconstruction of the interference effects produced in the EUT by conventional radiated-susceptibility tests (e.g., DO-160), requiring direct radiation of the system. </para>

History of In-Flight Simulationat General Dynamics

General Dynamics‐Advanced Information Systems (GDAIS) (formerly Veridian) has been the primary innovator, developer, and operator of in-flight simulators in the United States, as well as the rest of the world, since 1947. Though other agencies and countries have developed their own in-flight simulators, the focus is on GDAIS accomplishments in this field. In-flight simulation puts the pilot in the real flight environment and has been used in the development of new aircraft, research of flying qualities and flight-control systems, and training of pilots and engineers in these areas. More recent uses have been in the field of display systems and as avionics test beds. Early technologies that led to the development of variable stability aircraft and their earlier applications, are described first, followed by GDAIS’s history in the development and utilization of in-flight simulation, starting in 1949 with the first flight of the F4U-5 and its auxiliary rudder surface, up to the present with the five-degree-of-freedom F-16 Variable Stability In-Flight Simulator and Test Aircraft. Specific case studies are presented that describe the development and distinctive features of each of the GDAIS in-flight simulators and some of the more significant applications of these unique tools are highlighted.

A methodology for addressing support equipment obsolescence

The rapid growth of technology over the last twenty years is providing vastly improved capabilities for both avionics and avionics test systems. Unfortunately, an environment of rapid technological growth breeds a corresponding environment of rapid technological obsolescence. Test systems developed fifteen years ago are becoming increasingly more difficult to support due to obsolescence issues and, additionally, such a test system does not reflect the current state-of-the-art for automatic test equipment. The ability of a test system to evolve is essential to providing cost-effective support systems for electronic systems. The F-15 Tactical Electronic Warfare System (TEWS) Intermediate Support System (TISS) was developed under the Modular Automatic Test Equipment (MATE) guidelines to support the suite of F-15 electronic warfare LRUs. MATE imposed hardware architecture constraints, which were factors that contributed to its abandonment. However, the modular aspect of MATE has provided a system that can easily evolve with technological advancements. Modularity is the cornerstone of modern software systems and this is the aspect that has been exploited in the evolution of the TISS.