Project Spotlight: Advanced Mobile Universal Electrical Tooling (AMUET) Brings ATE Avionics Anomaly Detection to the Flight Line
NCMS’ industry partners have been involved for years in the development of technologies to improve identification and repair of anomalies in complex electrical systems. These anomalies are a common source of maintenance problems, but as electrical systems grow more complex, they become more difficult to locate. Traditionally, technicians would use automatic test equipment (ATE) or handheld meters to resolve them, but the latter are time-consuming to use and vulnerable to human error, while the former were too expensive and too cumbersome to use on the flight line.
A project team consisting of Solavitek, the U.S. Air Force, the Royal Canadian Air Force, the Mercer Engineering Research Center, and NCMS introduced Advanced Mobile Universal Electrical Tooling (AMUET) too military aircraft maintenance personnel. Presented at the 2017 CTMA Partners Meeting, AMUET is an ATE system that detects electrical wiring anomalies, tracks results, and provides analytic capabilities for monitoring vehicle fleets’ condition over time. Most importantly, it was fast, light, user-friendly, and cost-efficient enough for Air Force technicians to use on diverse aircraft.
AMUET has been tested for use with the CP-140 patrol aircraft, the CC-130 transport plane, CF-18 Hornet fighter, commercial aircraft, and naval vessels. The system requires only a single operator and can test an electrical subsystem in 45 minutes, significantly improving the efficiency of maintenance and aircraft availability.
AMUET is one of several NCMS inspection-related projects, which also include intermittent fault emulation and detection technologies. For more information about AMUET, see the presentation from the 2017 CTMA Partners Meeting.