Designing automated test systems: An adapted methodology inspired on Pahl and Beitz's systematic approach

Automated test systems (ATS) are application-specific systems that help in enhancing reliability and productivity of testing activities in different stages of product development cycle and manufacturing. Different tests are necessary to anticipate and validate a product and its sub-systems performances along the development cycle. Moreover, in the production phase, quality control systems that perform up to 100% inspection may be present and the integration of test results with company's management systems may be required. In this paper, the design of ATS is analyzed under the light of design methodologies, which can basically be understood as procedures stating stages and intermediary results to discipline the development process of technical systems. Usually, design methodologies are presented as a set of prescribed actions and recommendations, kept with some degree of generality to allow their compatibility with a wide range of industrial products, based on different technology branches. In this paper, an adaptation of Pahl and Beitz's approach allowed the derivation of a reference model to ATS development. Proposed stages are explained considering ATS typical division, i.e.: physical system, hardware and software. The adapted methodology, in which prescriptions are made with an intermediary degree and directed to one particular kind of system, can make easier the design of a highly context-dependant kind of system, helping the design team to consider important aspects in decisions taken along the development process and keeping these decisions linked to the requirements defined in early stages. Through the use of the proposed methodology, shorter development cycles are expected, since less design loops tend occur in a higher-systematization environment.