An embedded expert system for portable ATE

By embedding an expert system into portable automatic test equipment (ATE) the sophistication and capability of the testing system was increased while maintaining the compactness of the portable ATE. The results of this effort are presented, and include reductions in both the number and size of fault ambiguity sets, and the ability of the system to detect and isolate multiple faults. By combining information from built-in-test (BIT) results, user observations, and failure histories, the mean time to repair was reduced because utilization of this information permitted dynamic creation of an optimal test sequence. In addition, the recommendations presented have a greater amount of confidence associated with them because the intelligent maintenance aid (IMA) allows enhancement of existing ATE without major modifications to the hardware.<>