A component based approach for modeling expert knowledge in engine testing automation systems

Test automation systems used for developing combustion engines comprise hardware components and software functionality they depend on. Such systems usually perform similar tasks; they comprise similar hardware and execute similar software. Regarding their details, however, literally no two systems are exactly the same. In order to support such variations, the automation system has to be customized accordingly. Without a tools that properly supports both, customization as well as standardization of functionality, customization can be time consuming and error-prone. In this paper we describe a modeling driven approach that is based on components with hard- and software view that allows defining standard functionality for physical hardware. We show how this way most of the automation system´s standard functionality can be generated automatically, while still allowing to add custom functionality.