DMC was engaged to design and fabricate two HIL systems for different rocket subsystems to support the customer’s flight control software testing needs. To deliver a cost-effective solution, DMC leveraged a modular signal emulation design with a standalone set of shared test equipment, minimizing non-recurring engineering costs and capital expenditures.
Modular Signal Emulation Hardware
The customer had 15+ signal types that they needed to emulate to fully validate their control software. DMC was able to develop a modular signal emulation system based on UEI hardware which allowed each signal type to be composed into different HIL configurations based on the client’s requirements.
Shared Test Equipment
A common practice at DMC when designing test systems is to include the capability to perform a self-checkout of the system. This provides a way to perform automated periodic checkout of a system throughout its lifespan. For this customer, DMC was asked to fabricate two systems, both of which needed to have the capability for automated check-out.
To reduce capital expenditures, DMC designed a set of Shared Test Equipment which was capable of automatically testing both HIL systems, while also maintaining the option for signal count expansion.
DMC developed a RESTful API for the Shared Test Equipment to enable automated control by the customer’s existing test executive software.
Conclusion
DMC was able to design and fabricate modular Hardware-in-the-Loop systems that were able to meet the customer’s evolving requirement and maintain flexibility for increasing signal counts in each HIL system.
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