We propose to develop an abstract model for a reconfigurable airborne data acquisition system that includes models of the tools to analyze specific error budgets. We propose to determine the feasibility of implementing these tools in a software program that would automate the error budget process for any given data acquisition system and produce the overall measurement uncertainty (error) for all measurands in the system. Our intention is to implement the tools imbedded in this model and conceived in Phase I in a commercially marketable software product in Phase II of this effort. We contend that capturing total system error budget in a data acquisition system is critical to the conduct of successful, affordable test and evaluation (T&E)in the twenty-first century.
Benefits: Benefits: a) potential reductions to the cost of flight testing by providing critical information regarding the accuracy of test data; b) reduction of costly repeated flight tests due to unanticipated data errors; c) elimination of the need for extensive hand calculations currently required to produce error budgets by automating the process. Potential commercial applications include data acquisition in all test and evaluation environments in all engineering and science disciplines including medical sciences, industrial processing, remote instrumentation applications and all other applications of measurement science.
Keywords: error budget analysis, data acquisition, abstract modeling, instrumentation, measurement uncertainty, measurement science, test and evaluation
