Virtual Test Station (VTS)

The Wright Laboratory, Avionics Logistics Branch (WL/AAAF) has been conducting research to reduce development and support costs while drastically improving the capability of simulators used to test and debug avionics software. The result was the Advanced Multi-Purpose Support Environment (AMPSE). The development and evolution of the AMPSE brought true modularity and reconfigurability to the world of avionics Integration Support Facilities (ISFs). Although an AMPSE-based ISF is readily reconfigurable, that process involves physically disconnecting and reconnecting multiple avionics and data communications cables, reorganizing data communications, and then recompiling and relinking simulation and support software. Automation could streamline the process of adapting a collection of ISF resources to the changing needs of avionics engineers and testers. Through the use of advanced workstations, this new automation concept could be expanded to get the engineers out of the laboratories and give them more capabilities at their desks. Because this process of mapping different system configurations to the physical resources of the ISF is analogous to the process of mapping different software virtual memory configurations to physical memory, WL/AAAF has coined the term “Virtual Test Station (VTS)” to describe this new concept of an automatically reconfigurable ISF. This paper presents the details of the VTS concept and the implementation being undertaken by WL/AAAF