Please refer to the respective ILIAS course for the specific dates.

Aims

The aim of the lecture is to impart basic knowledge about the testing of embedded systems. The focus is on software systems, and to a lesser extent hardware aspects and mechatronic systems. Building on the theoretical foundations of testing, the very specific application of testing (for example of control unit networks in automotive engineering) is also considered. Furthermore, state-of-the-art tools and technologies for testing are explained and their application demonstrated. Current and already published research approaches in this discipline will be discussed. The contents of the lecture are very practical and can be successfully applied by students in other contexts, e.g. in standard software development.

Contents

Fundamentals and concepts of testing: Why is software testing so important in the development of embedded systems? Essential quality assurance measures are shown and illustrated together with characteristic studies. To set the context, a well-founded overview of analytical quality assurance is given.

Test phases and test process: The main development and test phase models are described. How is a test process composed, what test activities are there and how are they characterized?

Dynamic testing: Various approaches to systematic test case creation for dynamic test procedures are presented. Definitions, metrics and empirical values for test scope and test coverage are given.

Static test: Analytical quality assurance procedures are described in detail and related to each other. The theory of static test procedures is explained. All essential static test procedures such as formal reviews, static analyses, symbolic execution, model checking, formal verification and simulation are characterized, related to each other and partly explained using examples.

Evolutionary test procedures: After covering the theoretical foundations of evolutionary algorithms, various evolutionary test procedures used in automotive engineering are explained and made tangible using examples. In particular, the evolutionary test of real-time behavior, the evolutionary software structure test, the evolutionary function test and the evolutionary safety test are explained.

Model-based testing: Current research and development approaches such as time partition testing or automatic model-based test case derivation are presented and in some cases explained using examples.

Testing of real-time systems: After an introduction to the characteristics of real-time systems, special features of their planning (including design for testability) are described and the structure and mode of operation of real-time test programs are explained. The current state of the art is described and an outlook on possible future research focuses is given. As a special real-time test system, concrete areas of application of hardware-in-the-loop technology in research are highlighted, e.g. the testing of assistance systems in automotive engineering.