Unattended testing (i.e., no test engineer is present) takes advantage of advances in digital data acquisition, telemetry, remote sensing and other testing technologies. It offers several important benefits:
 

Reduced customer/operator bias in measurement data ... ideally we'd like the customer or operator to use the product as he or she normally would. Minimally intrusive instrumentation and data acquisition equipment help keep the test protocol in the background, or the system may be completely concealed from the customer or operator to encourage maximum candor in user behavior.

Reduced total test program costs ...
tests can be designed to require minimal test engineer involvement. The customer/user may even be recruited to assist in downloading data or to perform basic test system checks.
 

Long-term testing captures complete duty cycles ... unattended testing is useful where information on an entire duty cycle is desired and that duty cycle is protracted, e.g., in manufacturing where a production cycle might take a week or month, or in farming, where a complete planting or harvesting cycle might involve weeks or months.
 

sample project experience:

  • Automotive: 
    Instrument fleet vehicles to monitor vehicle bus data; door closure data; chassis loads, displacements and accelerations; temperature, vibration and chatter in brake systems; driveline performance; trim, seat, and instrument panel loads; instrument components on commercial truck to identify damaging events

  • Rail:
    Instrument railcar side panels to capture strains; long-term unattended data acquisition project to characterize load on axle/motor units

  • Construction, Agricultural, Off-Highway:
    I    nstrument mining truck to capture ride handling data; agricultural equipment to capture chassis loads and vehicle bus data; operating loads on blade and other road grader components

  • Industrial Process:
    Instrument boiler rods to monitor by-product build-up as part of maintenance schedule