Embedded Software Automation Testing

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Automation & Test

DISTek’s approach to test ensures the development of extensible, configurable, modular, and scalable test systems that serve customers over time. In addition to test services, DISTek offers D.R.I.V.E.®, an off-the-shelf, ruggedized, portable data acquisition system for customers.

Past DISTek projects include applications that leverage the power of tools like FPGA, CAN, NI LabVIEW, NI VeriStand, and NI TestStand. To provide the best and most up-to-date expertise available, DISTek engineers attain and maintain certifications, and the DISTek staff includes more than 15 National Instruments Certified Architects, LabVIEW Developers, TestStand Architects, and Professional Instructors. Also, DISTek is home to one of the world’s few LabVIEW Champions.

Deploying a Reliable HIL Tester

Customer Challenge: Create an HIL test system for the ECUs in an agricultural vehicle where ECUs can be tested individually or as a group on a simulated vehicle.

DISTek Solution: Developed a physical test stand and corresponding software with NI LabVIEW and NI TestStand that allowed for an operator to execute a test sequence and assists an operator in creating and managing these sequences, if necessary.

Additional Projects	Dev. Platform	Industry	Project Type	Project Summary
ACU Test System	CAN and DAQ Cards, Updated to PXI, NI LabVIEW	Agricultural	HIL	Expand Summary
Developed a system to enable ECU software testing for an armrest control unit (ACU). The user would interact with a control created to visually and functionally simulate the actual gear shifter that would be found in a vehicle.
Controller Test System	NI LabVIEW, NI CompactRIO, CAN	Agricultural	HIL	Expand Summary
Created a LabVIEW-based system to simulate and monitor the I/O for a controller (software and hardware) that was under development. The system needed to be updated to handle a new feature, which allowed portions of the controller to be dynamically turned on and off. Various additional updates and improvements were made to the application to improve its usability and flexibility.
CAN Translator	NI CompactRIO, NI LabVIEW	Agricultural	CAN	Expand Summary
Designed a flexible system that enables test and simulation of off-road vehicles. Development focused primarily on enabling electronic control units on multiple CAN busses running at different speeds to communicate with each other. It also allowed various I/O to autonomously trigger of particular CAN messages, as configured by the customer.
HIL Tester	PXI, NI LabVIEW, FPGA, NI TestStand	Agricultural	HIL	Expand Summary
Developed test system for electronic control units in an agricultural vehicle. Units could be tested individually or as a group on simulated vehicle. Created a test-stand & software with NI TestStand & Labview. Operator can create, manage, & execute test sequences. Also built a PXI test system that allows the testing of each of the controllers individually or as a group on a simulated vehicle by simulating analog, digital, and CAN inputs with realistic loading.
Guidance System Simulator	NI LabVIEW, CAN	Agricultural	HIL	Expand Summary
Created a LabVIEW-based system to simulate GPS units. This application included functionality to simulate a vehicle using the iGuide application, which simulated the actual guidance system based on the GPS simulation. In this project, the simulator was augmented by creating the functionality to simulate a vehicle using the guidance system application where the application consisted of two, simultaneously-functioning, coordinated instances of the application. This project was developed using an agile software development process.
Extensible HIL Tester	CAN, NI PXI, Real-Time, NI LabVIEW	Agriculture	HIL	Expand Summary
Design & implement extensible HIL test system to test ag transmission systems. Needed to develop code in house for use in final application. Extensibility realized through use of software architecture based on loading & executing compartmentalized code modules. Allowing application to load code modules, and developing the application in code modules itself, users were able to modify final system & received a library of functional code modules as templates.
Vehicle Display Software	Embedded Linus, Squish IDE, Google Test, Python	Agriculture	Operator Interface	Expand Summary
Developed automated software to test the embedded software functions/methods when project is built. Also developed automated software to test the user interface of a virtual terminal display.

Developing a Pressure Controlled Pilot (PCP) Test Stand

Customer Challenge: Optimize a dual-manufacturing, end-of-line test station used to validate electro-hydraulic pilot valve performance against criteria for various model valves.

DISTek Solution: Created a system that reduced error and improved takt time by automating functions to limit operator interaction to bar code scanning, placing a valve on the system, and pressing a single "Continue" button at various stages of the test sequence.

Additional Projects	Dev. Platform	Industry	Project Type	Project Summary
Endurance Test Station	NI CompactRIO, NI LabVIEW, Real-time, FPGA	Agricultural	Automation	Expand Summary
Created a control application to automonously cycle through a test sequence for endurance testing of transmissions with an automated transmission test apparatus. The test system performs various shift patterns using pneumatic cylinders and measures gear shifter displacement, shaft speeds, and oil temperatures.
Hydraulic Cylinder System	PXI, EtherCAT, NI VeriStand, NI LabVIEW	Agricultural	Automation, DAQ	Expand Summary
Designed test stand that can perform Calibrated Accelerated Life Testing (C.A.L.T.) on hydraulic cylinders. This solution is fully extensible with modeling capabilities, customizable test scenarios & supports a wide range of sensors. The design allows for re-creating in a test lab dynamic field conditions the cylinders encounter. Future capabilities will include a test profile to be recorded at a mobile machine and then played back in the test lab.
Hydraulic Valve Test Station	NI M Series DAQ, NI LabVIEW	Automotive	End-of-line test	Expand Summary
Created an application to control end-of-assembly-line test that acquires data from pressure transducers, flow meters, digital IO, and communication with a PLC.
Valve Test Stand	PXI, NI LabVIEW	Agricultural	Automation	Expand Summary
Optimized a dual test station used to validate electro-hydraulic pilot valve performance against criteria for various model valves. Created a system that reduces error and improves takt time by automating functions and greatly reducing operator interaction.

Automating Fill Stations for an Industrial Control System

Customer Challenge: Replace outdated and limiting software in an existing industrial control system that fills gas canisters.

DISTek Solution: Used a PROFIBUS gateway and LabVIEW to create an application that communicates with and controls the devices on the existing PROFIBUS network.

Additional Projects	Dev. Platform	Industry	Project Type	Project Summary
Controller Test System	LabVIEW, RIO Module, cRIO, CAN	Agricultural	HIL	Expand Summary
Created a LabVIEW-based system to simulate and monitor the I/O for a controller (software and hardware) that was under development. The system needed to be updated to handle a new feature, which allowed portions of the controller to be dynamically turned on and off. Various additional updates and improvements were made to the application to improve its usability and flexibility.
CAN Translator	cRIO, LV, RIO Module	Agricultural	CAN	Expand Summary
2009-2010: Created flexible system enabling test and simulation of off-road vehicles. Primarily focused on enabling ECUs on multiple CAN busses running at different speeds to communicate with each other. It also allowed various I/O to autonomously trigger of particular CAN messages, as configured by the customer.
Fill Station Automation	NI LabVIEW	Automation	Vehicle Networks	Expand Summary
Replaced the outdated software in an existing Industrial control system which filled gas canisters with single components or mixtures of gases. Used a PROFIBUS gateway and LabVIEW to create an application that communicates with and controls the devices on the existing PROFIBUS network. The software was capable of handing a user login and monitoring and controlling the filling of the canisters and allow for the creation of customer "recipes" of gases.

Fuel Injection System

Customer Challenge: Develop a test bench solution to simulate an 8-cylinder diesel engine to allow for microsecond control of fuel delivery and measurement.

DISTek Solution: Used NI™s DRIVVEN tools, PXI, and LabVIEW to create an application able to control the injection events including the electrical profile for the event, the rail pressure control, and measurement of delivered fuel per injection.

Additional Projects	Dev. Platform	Industry	Project Type	Project Summary
Automated Display Control Library	C#, Embedded Linux	Agriculture	Library (SIL/HIL)	Expand Summary
Developed library that allows for controlled automated testing in multiple environments, SIL/HIL. The library gives testers the ability to press the touch screen, capture OCR text from any part of the display, verify any portion of the image on the display, and saves a comparison image that displays the difference between the displayed image and the expected image.
Control Application	LabVIEW	Agricultural	NI LabVIEW	Expand Summary
Created a commercial software application and NI drivers for controlling a hardware product. Due to a commercial software application which the customer wished to resell to a large audience, greater detail needed to put into the installation, help files, and user interface. DISTek also created a system for licensing the software that would allow the customer to generate software license keys.
DISTek D.R.I.V.E.	cRIO, LabVIEW/Real-time/FPGA	Universal	DAQ	Expand Summary
Created a portable, rugged data acquisition/logging system capable of acquiring multiple analog, digital, temperature, CAN, and vibration data.
Electrical Hardware Testing	Electronics	Agriculture	Hardware Testing	Expand Summary
Development and implementation of electrical hardware testing on components and agriculture systems for product verification and validation.
Electrical System Simulation	Synopsys SABER, MAST, VHDL-AMS	Agriculture	Mechatronic Simulation, Hardware Testing	Expand Summary
Collaborated with customer to develop mechatronic simulations of an agriculture vehicle. Component and sub-system models created based on design specifications for electrical analysis, testing, and validation. Lower-level models incorporated into full-system simulations for electrical load and fusing analysis.
EOL Manufacturing Tester	LV, NI TestStand	Agricultural	End-of-line test	Expand Summary
Created an end-of-line runoff test-stand, for testing a new agricultural implement as it rolled off the line. DISTek created a physical hydraulic stand, test-stand and associated software for this project. The software application, built in LabVIEW on top of NI TestStand, allowed for an operator to execute a test sequence as well as calibration sensors, adjust pass fail criteria, and modify instructions displayed to the tech.
Flow Meter Calibrator	cDAQ & LabVIEW	Off-highway	DAQ	Expand Summary
Developed an application to calibrate flow meters against weight/mass delivery. The application uses diesel fuel mass calculations and a high precision scale. It calculates actual volume delivered and applies the results to the number of pulses received from the flow meter resulting in a calibration curve for the meter.
Fuel Injection System	NI PXI, NI LabVIEW	Off-highway	DAQ, Control	Expand Summary
Simulated an eight-cylinder diesel engine with microsecond fuel delivery control and measurement to test the functionality of fuel injectors in a real-life system. Created a test bench that uses NI DRIVVEN tools to test the electrical profile for each injection and the rail pressure control and measurement of delivered fuel per injection.
Gun Mount Test Software	PCI DAQ-DAQ Pad, LV	Military	DAQ, NI LabVIEW	Expand Summary
Re-implemented an existing system in LabVIEW with NI DAQ. The existing system was for testing large-caliber gun mounts. The mounts had integrated recoil recovery devices and we created a system for measuring the movement of the recoil and the recovery. The existing system was old and becoming difficult to support. The new system is based on an NI multifunction DAQ cards and LabVIEW software to allow for support for many years to come.
Hardware Test Plan Generator	C#	Agriculture	Automation, Hardware Testing	Expand Summary
Collaborated with customer to develop an automated test plan generation tool used for electronic hardware device testing. GUI with pre-defined questions regarding DUT (device-under-test) facilitated automated output of testing flow chart, project timeline, and test procedures document. Considerable cost and time savings were noted by customer.
Hydraulic Reservoir Pressure	NI CompactRIO, NI LabVIEW, Real-time, FPGA	Agricultural	End-of-line test	Expand Summary
Created a test/control system using NI VeriStand that pressurizes up to 6 hydraulic tanks simultaneously and monitors each tank pressure to detect leaks.
Manufacturing Line	PXI DeviceNet, Motion, Smart Camera	Manufacturing	End-of-line test	Expand Summary
Replaced existing PLC control/test system with a PC-based system capable of pulling build orders from a central database. All DAQ was done via DeviceNet. Assembly instructions are pulled from a central database and prompt the operator through the assembly process, and build processes and test results are pushed back into the database.
SIL Compiler & Runtime Environment	C#	Agriculture	SIL	Expand Summary
Developed a compiler and runtime environment for a customer’s proprietary scripting language. The project has been developed in such a manner that support for new compilers for other testing languages (proprietary and open source) can be added as needed by the demands of the client.
Software Testing	C/C++	Agriculture	Software Testing	Expand Summary
Development and implementation of integration, subsystem and system level targeted software testing for product verification and validation. Automated and manual testing performed in various environments including vehicle, HIL, SIL, and MIL. White-box, black-box, and grey-box methods used requiring knowledge of both the vehicle operation and internal software. Testing was primarily requirements based focused on the objective of installation, regression, and acceptance. Non-functional testing also performed to validate corner conditions.
Test Cells Modifications	cDAQ, LabVIEW	Agricultural	DAQ	Expand Summary
Developed an application to measure air flow patterns through a diesel particulate filter for an engines exhaust system (EPA Tier 4 regulation). The system automatically adjusted air flow velocity through coordination of three individual blowers. It also used four pito tubes mounted on linear actuators to measure and map air flow patterns across the inside surface of the filter.
Extensible HIL Tester	CAN, NI PXI, Real-Time, NI LabVIEW	Agriculture	HIL	Expand Summary
Design and implementation of an extensible HIL test system for the testing of agricultural transmission systems. End user requirements stated the need for being able to develop code in house for use in the final application. Extensibility of the final system was realized through the use of a software architecture based around the loading and executing of compartmentalized code modules. By allowing the application to load code modules, and developing the application in code modules itself, the end users were capable of modify the final system as well as receive a library of already build and functional code modules to use as templates.
DC Dynamometer Control	FPGA, Real-Time, NI LabVIEW	Agriculture	HIL	Expand Summary
Engineered a controls system capable of four quadrant dynamometer control of a single electric DC motor test specimen. The final solution required real-time, configurable control of motor speed or torque. The application also needed to accommodate configuration and tuning adaptation for several load motors. By exchanging one load motor for another, the system was able to accommodate a wide range of test specimens. Customizable data acquisition was also necessary for operators to attach and log a number of different signal and transducer types.
X-Ray Tube Bearing Test Stand	Instrument Control, NI PXI, Real-Time, NI LabVIEW	Medical	Hardware Test	Expand Summary
: Data acquisition and safety interlock system for lifecycle testing of X-ray tube components. System was designed to isolate the user from high-voltage components while minimizing operator training through automation of system control logic. The final solution consisted of a Real-time controller for fault monitoring, safety interlock control, and data acquisition. Acquired data was saved to disk for post-test analysis and processing.

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Software Automation
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Featured DISTek Expert

Name:

Gene

Technical Strengths:

Test Systems Engineering, Industrial Automation, Hydraulics, Electro-Hydraulic Control Systems, Reliability Engineering, Quality Engineering, Electronics, Mechanical Systems, Sensor Technologies, PAC's, PLC's

Past Experience

20+yrs as a Test Systems Engineer for various industries and Regional Reliability Laboratories Management for a Fortune 500 Company.

DISTek Employee Since:

2006

What I love about my job:

The broad range of project technologies that I get exposed to at DISTek call on and expand the technical strengths I've attained over my career. As technology grows, engineers are challenged with coming up with new ways to test their products. Designing the test solutions for these products is an extremely rewarding experience.

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