TestML – A Test Exchange Language for Model-based Testing of Embedded Software

Test processes in the automotive industry are tool-intensive and affected by technologically heterogeneous test infrastructures. In the industrial practice a product has to pass tests at several levels of abstraction such as Model-in-the-Loop (MIL), Software-in-the-Loop (SIL) and Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) tests. Different test systems are applied for this purpose (e.g. dSPACE MTest, dSPACE Automation Desk, National Instruments Teststand) and almost each test system requests its own proprietary test description language. The exchange of tests between different test systems and the reuse of tests between different test levels is normally not possible. Efforts to integrate these heterogeneous test environments, to address test exchange in a general manner and to standardize and harmonize the existing language environment are still at the beginning and not tailored towards the requirements of the automotive domain. To keep the whole development and test process efficient and manageable, the definition of an integrated and seamless approach is required. TestML – the test exchange language we present in this article – is defined to overcome the technological obstacles (different test language syntax and semantics, different data formats and interface descriptions) that almost automatically accompany the application of heterogeneous test tools and test infrastructures. TestML supports the exchange of tests between different test notations in a heterogeneous tool environment. In this paper, we introduce the XML schema of TestML and demonstrate the efficiency of the interchange format by giving examples from the model-based development of electronic control units. Tool support is illustrated by an application with Simulink/Stateflow.