Technology concept of an automated system for integration testing

The following paper aims to define and validate the architectural design of ARTO (The word “arto” in Italian means “limb”). ARTO is the acronym for automated robotics for testing optimization and it is a system designed for the automation of certain stages of avionics integration testing. The idea that laid the foundation for the realization of this system is the fact that during the execution of integration tests, test engineers have to perform numerous repetitive actions that can be automated. The purpose of ARTO is to substitute the human test engineer in the execution of tests on the aeronautical cockpits. To achieve this goal, ARTO architecture has been structured into four subsystems: a central framework, a computer vision subsystem, a robotic subsystem, and a human–machine interface (HMI) subsystem, each of them has been developed in this study. The framework aim is to connect and manage all the other subsystems. Computer vision is useful to verify certain indicators on the aeronautical displays, to check whether a test is passed or failed. Robotics is used to manually execute the test, to physically interact with the cockpit, taking the place of the human arm. Lastly, the HMI is used to set the tests to be performed. These four subsystems have been tested, both individually and integrated, on board of the mock-up of the cockpit of the NGCTR in the laboratory in Cascina Costa (Italy) of Leonardo Helicopter Division, to validate the system.