Aircraft testing and validation is an exhaustive process that consumes a large amount of time because of the necessary safety and quality regulations that needs to satisfy. Human factor limits the process efficiency, increases non-recurring costs, and reduces flexibility for new tests and processes.
The validation of aircraft components and its integration is a task that traditionally has been done manually and it has required complex external systems. On the one hand, the connexion of the external test benches to the Aircraft, with a huge amount of harnesses and difficult mounting positions for operators. On the other hand, the validation of the control units of the cockpit. These tests are done manually by operators in positions that are not ergonomics what implies health problems for the technicians.
The general objective of this proposal was to explore further possibilities of new ways to implement this quality validation of aircraft products in a more efficient manner, addressing the reduction of Non Recurring Costs, A/C Testing time, human manipulation, and improving lead time and flexibility of current processes.
As a conclusion this project has achieved the reduction of external test benches for aircraft systems by using a DDS architecture, however, this architecture is not still completely integrated between different vendors and needs to design, in some cases new software modules. In any case, is a big step through the reduction of external test benches. Regarding the validation of the cockpits, the inclusion of a robotic system with artificial vision has reduced the time that an operator needs to be in the cockpit at the same time that has improved the quality and efficiency of the tests. Now, the MAF consortium is working with the topic manager on a way to industrialize this solution in the following two years.
