A Dependency Matrix Processing Algorithm to Prioritize High Incidence Faults

The operational readiness test (ORT), like weapon testing before firing, is becoming more and more important for systems used in the field. However, the test requirement of the ORT is distinctive. Specifically, the rule of selecting test items should be changed in different test turns, and whether there is a fault is more important than where the fault is. The popular dependency matrix (D-matrix) processing algorithms becomes low efficient because they cannot change their optimizing direction and spend unnecessary time on fault localization and isolation. To this end, this paper proposes a D-matrix processing algorithm named piecewise heuristic algorithm for D-matrix (PHAD). Its key idea is to use a piecewise function comprised of multiple different functions instead of the commonly used fixed function and switch subfunctions according to the test stage. In this manner, PHAD has the capability of changing optimizing direction, precisely matching the variant test requirements, and generating an efficient test sequence. The experiments on the random matrixes of different sizes and densities prove that the proposed algorithm performs better than the classical algorithms in terms of expected test cost (ETC) and other metrics. More generally, the piecewise heuristic function shows a new way to design D-matrix processing algorithm and a more flexible heuristic function to meet more complicated test requirements.