A search-based framework for automatic testing of MATLAB/Simulink models

Search-based test-data generation has proved successful for code-level testing but almost no search-based work has been carried out at evels of abstraction. In this paper the application of such approaches at the higher levels of abstraction offered by MATLAB/ Simulink models is investigated and a wide-ranging framework for test-data generation and management is presented. Model-level analogues of code-level structural coverage criteria are presented and search-based approaches to achieving them are described. The paper also describes the first search-based approach to the generation of mutant-killing test data, addressing a fundamental limitation of mutating. Some problems remain whatever the level of abstraction considered. In particular, complexity introduced by the presence of persistent state when generating test sequences is as much a challenge at the Simulink model level as it has been found to be at the code level. The framework addresses this problem. Finally, a flexible appr...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2008
• Where: JSS
• Authors: Yuan Zhan, John A. Clark
• Keywords: JSS 2008, Search-based Test-data Generation, Simulink Model, Test-data Generation