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Bloomy and Draper Laboratory Showcase Universal Test Station at AUTOTEST 2014

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Highlights

  • Bloomy presents affordable, flexible and scalable commercial approaches to complex aerospace and defense test challenges
  • Bloomy and Draper Laboratory collaborate on Universal Test Station to perform ultra-precise measurements of strategic-grade inertial sensors
  • The companies jointly present a whitepaper focusing on the use of flexible and modular test station architecture

St. Louis, MO – September 16, 2014 – Bloomy Controls, Inc. (Bloomy), the leader in automated test, data acquisition and control systems, proudly announces its participation in IEEE AUTOTEST 2014 to present affordable, flexible and scalable commercial approaches to complex aerospace and defense test challenges, on display in conjunction with The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc. (Draper Laboratory) in Booth 610, Hall 1, of the America’s Center in downtown St. Louis. 

Aerospace and defense sensors, controls and subsystems are very challenging to test because they are becoming increasingly more accurate and complex, often requiring real-world interaction, in real-time.  Because some conditions are hard to create, such as rocket trajectories, flight dynamics, or extreme environments, custom automated test equipment (ATE) containing hardware and software simulations are generally required.  However, custom ATE can be labor intensive, costly to design, manufacture, and maintain; and application specific. Therefore, Bloomy and Draper Laboratory have collaborated to develop a Universal Test Station (UTS) that incorporates hardware-in-the-loop test methods and electronics functional testing capability to test strategic-grade aerospace and defense instrumentation. The UTS leverages commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS), industry-standard, equipment and a software-driven design that provides robustness, flexibility, and significant life-cycle cost savings compared to traditional custom test equipment. The UTS is based on Bloomy’s extendedUTS (xUTS) platform widely used for manufacturing test of commercial electronic products in low-to-medium volumes and high-product mix.

At IEEE AUTOTEST 2014, Bloomy and Draper Laboratory also jointly present a technical paper and provide a live demonstration of the UTS. The whitepaper is titled “Testing Ultra-Precise, Strategic-Grade Instrumentation Using a Flexible and Modular Test Station Architecture”, (M. Van Laethem, M. Leammukda, and P. Castelli, P. Dunbeck, © September 16, 2014, IEEE AUTOTEST Conference), and is available for immediate download at bloomy.com, in addition to the conference proceedings. The live demonstration compares real-time model results of an ideal accelerometer with acceleration readings from a MEMS device and an iPad mounted on a dividing head.

About Bloomy

Bloomy is the leader in automated test, data acquisition, and control. We provide innovative products, platforms, and custom turnkey systems by applying decades of experience combining the latest hardware and software from National Instruments, best test engineering practices, and expert knowledge of applications in many high-technology industries, including aerospace, defense, electronics, and energy.

Readers can learn more about Bloomy by visiting www.bloomy.com.