Test automation and safety assessment in rapid systems prototyping

This paper addresses the need for automatic generation of executable environment models to facilitate the testing of real-time reactive systems under development (SUD) in rapid system prototyping. We present an approach that allows users to model the environment in which the SUD will operate in the terms of attributed event grammar (AEG). The AEG provides a uniform approach for automatically generating, executing, and analyzing tests. The approach is supported by a generator that creates test cases from the AEG models. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach with using as a case study a prototype of the safety-critical computer-assisted resuscitation algorithm (CARA) software for a casualty intravenous fluid infusion pump.