Planning Aspects of Automatic Test and Checkout in Missille and Space Systems

The degree of automation applied to test and checkout should be controlled by: (1) R&D nature of the end item program (2) Fixed program character of the state-of-the-art in automation (3) Test plan Within the scope of these basic considerations, a tradeoff should be performed among manual, semi-automatic, and automatic equipment. Certain inherent limitations of man and machine are provided. If automation is to be employed, a system design should be selected, interfaces defined, and selective implementation started in the R&D phase.