Robotic Test Probe - Phase II

SBIR Technical Topic AF97-241, Robotic Test Probe, addresses the problem of providing reliable access to test points on circuit cards under test. It allows decreased test time, increased reliability and reduced test program development cost. Manual probing is costly to implement, is subject to judgement errors and requires the operator to consult ancillary documents. Normally, functional end-to-end testing is performed at the card's interface connector. When no test connector exists or insufficient test points are available, probing must be employed. This technique requires human judgement and additional technical references to identify the probe points. The Robotic Test Probe technique circumvents these problems. Once initial design costs are amortized, only minor modifications will be required to accommodate other applications. It can be incorporated into a VXI test set utilizing standard COTS hardware/software and also provides a unique solution to implementation of Vertical Commonality into the testing toolset.Under the proposed Phase I effort, experience BCO Inc Engineers will use their aggregate knowledge to specify requirements, identify appropriate hardware/software requirements and provide a proof of concept. Under Phase I, demonstration of the principles of robotic probing will be conducted.