Automatic Test Committee

Mission

To provide an open and effective forum for exchange of technical information between those areas of industry and government concerned with the implementation and execution of automated test and automatic test systems as part of maintenance of weapon systems.

The Automatic Test Division (ATC) was formed in the mid-70s as a result of a senior Navy study on automated test (Marcy Repot), with the formation of the Ad Hoc ATE Project for the U.S. Navy. This grew into the Joint Services ATE Project in the early 80s, and finally to the ATC as we know it today. The ATC is represented by more than 50 companies and organizations and has grown to be the premier advisor to the DoD on matters of automatic test. We have served as the Industry advisors to the DoD Automatic Test Equipment Management Board (AMB), thus enabling broad-based Industry input to the planning process and facilitating first-hand feedback from the DoD user community.

ATC has two very successful Working Groups that focus on specific ATE applications in the realm of the two approved DoD Automatic Test Systems: the Integrated Family of Test Equipment User Group (IFTE User Group) and the Consolidated Automated Support System Test Program Set Group (CASS TPSG). There are a number of special project groups as well, including one that developed a commercial version of MIL-T-28800 (Environmental Mil Spec) and one examining a facilitation of re-hosting of Test Program Sets via the Test Requirement Document (TRD).

CASS TPSG: The ATC has provided significant support to the Navy's CASS Program through information exchanges, formal studies, tool fairs, and regular meetings. The Navy has acknowledged the CASS TPSG as a major contributor to the overall success of the CASS Program. Study efforts have included a survey for industry investments in diagnostics & prognostics, an analysis of tradeoffs between Integrated Diagnostics approaches vs. traditional off-board maintenance activities, and examination of the benefits of diagnostic insertion and reliability upgrades.

IFTE: The ATC supports the US Army Integrated Family of Test Equipment (IFTE) by maintaining a mechanism for information exchange between current and future users and TPS developers. It provides a forum for exchange of review on design, software, capability, product improvement, and TPS development.

The ATC meets four times a year, and its working groups meet as necessary. The ATC is closely aligned with the IEEE AUTOTESTCON, which is the premier Technical Conference & Trade Show devoted solely to Automatic Test with the Military, and one of our regular meetings is always held the Sunday prior to AUTOTESTCON. The ATC has an annual award, the John Slattery Memorial Award for engineering excellence, customer focus, and exceptions integrity in the ATC field. This award is presented as part of the AUTOTESTCON awards ceremonies. See the Systems Engineering Division homepage for more information.