Systems for and methods of automatically scheduling and executing in situ tests on electrical and mechanical systems

A method of testing an electrical and mechanical system including interconnected devices, each device including one or more components, the method comprising:

• identifying a component test for each component tested;
• grouping components of the interconnected devices into groups such that components in each of the groups are tested in parallel;
• dynamically scheduling execution of the component tests to minimize a total execution time of the component tests based on criteria including the groups, at least one prerequisite constraint for starting execution of the component tests, and at least one prerequisite safety constraint for maintaining execution of the component tests;
• and
• executing the component tests on the interconnected devices based on the scheduling.

A testing system for testing an electrical and mechanical system comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a computer readable medium in communication with the processor and having stored thereon computer-executable instructions, which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform a test method, the computer-executable instructions including:
• multiple finite-state machines, each finite state machine corresponding to one or more interconnected devices of the electrical and mechanical system, wherein states of the multiple finite-state machines correspond to component tests for testing components of the one or more interconnected devices;
• and
• a scheduler configured to (a) query at least one test enabler set, which includes constraints to satisfy in order for one or more component tests to continue executing, before starting the one or more component tests, (b) dynamically control the multiple finite-state machines to execute the component tests according to groups of the components such that components in each group are tested in parallel such that a total execution time of the component tests is minimized, and (c) query at least one test safety set, which includes constraints to satisfy in order for one or more component tests to continue executing, before stopping execution of the one or more component tests.