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

1. A computer readable recording medium, storing thereon a plurality of computer-executable instructions, that when executed test an electrical and mechanical system including a plurality of interconnected devices, each device including one or more components, the instructions comprising:

identifying a component test for each component tested;

grouping components of the plurality of interconnected devices into groups such that all components in each of the groups are able to be tested in parallel;

determining loads on the plurality of interconnected devices;

dynamically scheduling execution of the component tests in an order of decreasing loads on the plurality of interconnected devices based on criteria comprising the groups and constraints for starting and maintaining execution of the component tests to minimize a total execution time of the component tests; and

executing the component tests on the plurality of interconnected devices based on the scheduling.

2. The computer readable recording medium of claim 1 , wherein the criteria further comprise states of at least one of the one or more components.

3. The computer readable recording medium of claim 2 , wherein the instructions further comprise automatically monitoring changes in the states of the components and updating at least one of the constraints based on any changes.

4. The computer readable recording medium of claim 3 , wherein the constraints are updated asynchronously.

5. The computer readable recording medium of claim 1 , wherein the instructions further comprise:

selecting a first set of the components for testing based on loads on the devices;

selecting a second set of the components for testing only after testing of the first set of the components is completed; and

selecting constraints to delay testing of the second set of the components only after testing of the first set of the components is completed.

6. The computer readable recording medium of claim 1 , wherein the instructions further comprise:

detecting that one of the components is unresponsive to a corresponding component test;

placing the unresponsive component into a recovery state; and

updating the constraints to indicate that the unresponsive component is removed from the groups.

7. The computer readable recording medium of claim 1 , wherein the instructions are executed to test a heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning unit.

8. The computer readable recording medium of claim 6 , wherein the components are selected from the group consisting of a chiller, a fan, a valve, a duct, an airflow sensor, a thermometer, a heating coil, a vent, a pump, variable air volume boxes, a radiator, a boiler, an actuator, and any combination thereof.

9. The computer readable recording medium of claim 1 , wherein the instructions further comprise:

associating a finite-state machine with each of the devices, wherein states of a finite-state machine correspond to a corresponding component test.

10. The computer readable recording medium of claim 9 , wherein the instructions further comprise:

automatically generating the multiple finite-state machines from the constraints.

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

a processor;

a computer readable medium in communication with the processor and storing a plurality of computer-executable instructions, which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform a test method, the plurality of 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 for dynamically controlling the multiple finite-state machines to execute the component tests in an order of decreasing loads on the one or more interconnected devices and according to groups of the components such that all components in each group are tested in parallel such that a total execution time of the component tests is minimized.

12. The testing system of claim 11 , wherein the computer-executable instructions further comprise:

test enabler sets comprising constraints that must be satisfied for one or more of the component tests to execute, wherein the scheduler queries the test enabler sets before starting one or more of the component tests; and

test safety sets comprising constraints that must be satisfied for one or more of the component tests to continue executing, wherein the scheduler queries the test enabler sets before stopping execution of one or more of the component tests.

13. The testing system of claim 12 , wherein the computer-executable instructions further comprise:

a condition finite-state machine for monitoring results of the component tests and updating the constraints based on the results.

14. The testing system of claim 11 , wherein the computer readable medium further stores a description file including:

a description of physical interconnections of one or more of the components; and

a state of each of the one or more of the components.

15. The testing system of claim 11 , wherein the electrical and mechanical system comprises a heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning unit.

16. The testing system of claim 15 , wherein the components are selected from the group consisting of a chiller, a fan, a valve, a duct, an airflow sensor, a thermometer, a heating coil, a vent, a pump, variable air volume boxes, a radiator, a boiler, an actuator, and any combination thereof.

17. The testing system of claim 11 , wherein the testing system is coupled to the electrical and mechanical system over a network.

18. The testing system of claim 17 , wherein the network comprises a cloud network.

19. The testing system of claim 11 , wherein each of the components has an associated test list package, the test list package comprising one or more test lists, wherein each test list comprises a list of component tests for testing operation of a component.

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

identifying a component test for each component tested;

ranking each of the plurality of interconnected devices based on decreasing loads on the plurality of interconnected devices;

selecting a first set of conditions that allow component tests to be executed on a first set of components on devices of the plurality of interconnected devices with higher loads before component tests are executed on a second set of components on devices of the plurality of interconnected devices with smaller loads;

selecting a second set of conditions that postpone execution of the component tests on the second set of components to effect the first set of conditions;

scheduling execution of the component tests using the first and second sets of conditions to obtain an execution schedule; and

executing the component tests on the plurality of interconnected devices according to the execution schedule.

21. The method of claim 20 , wherein the component tests are embodied in finite-state machines.

22. The method of claim 20 , wherein the electrical and mechanical systems comprises a heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning unit.