This research program has focused on developing
tools and techniques that can automate the process of
testing and troubleshooting complex control systems
that are implemented using an autocoder. Significant
increases in software complexity and sophistication
have made software more difficult to test and trouble-shoot.
Historically, the cost of debugging has been
the most time-consuming and expensive aspect of
large-scale software development. In order to
increase software production efficiency, many real-time
systems and controllers are being implemented
with the code generated by automatic code generators,
such as the MATRIXX SystemBuild from Integrated
Systems, Inc. and SIMULINK Real Time
Workshop from The Mathworks, Inc.
The MATRIX X Automated Testing Tool (MATT)
was developed at East Tennessee State University to
aid in the verification of systems implemented in the
MATRIXX environment. The tool targets automation
of black box techniques such as critical value testing,
random input testing, cyclic value testing, and
floating-point accuracy testing. MATT supports
automated testing of MATRIXX models, at the super-block
level, through a user friendly interface for both
the Solaris and Windows platforms. This tool provides
powerful support for the generation of test
matrices, launching of simulation, capturing simulation
results, and analyzing these results. Graphing is
supported, as well as the ability to save test data for
later reuse and save simulation results for regression
analysis. MATT can literally generate thousands of
tests, simulate those tests, and capture results in
minutes. More than 20 test types are provided in
addition to the ability to import user-created test data.
A user simply selects a MATRIXX model, chooses a
superblock, selects the number of tests, selects the
test type for each input variable, creates an input
matrix, launches a simulation, and analyzes the
results through MATT Results and Summary screens.
Graphs are easily created as well by simply choosing
the input or output variables to graph and creating
the graph in MATT.
In an era of highly ambitious technological goals
critically dependent on real-time software, well-planned
and effective testing strategies based on
automation are needed to meet these goals. The
MATT tool supports specification of a set of test
types, strategies for applying these test types, and
automated support for testing real-time systems built
using MATRIXX .
Point of Contact: A. Patterson-Hine
(650) 604-4178
apatterson-hine@mail.arc.nasa.gov
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