Simulation-Based Testing of Simulink Models With Test Sequence and Test Assessment Blocks

Simulation-based software testing supports engineers in finding faults in Simulink^® models. It typically relies on search algorithms that iteratively generate test inputs used to exercise models in simulation to detect design errors. While simulation-based software testing techniques are effective in many practical scenarios, they are typically not fully integrated within the Simulink environment and require additional manual effort. Many techniques require engineers to specify requirements using logical languages that are neither intuitive nor fully supported by Simulink, thereby limiting their adoption in industry. This work presents <sc>HECATE</sc>, a testing approach for Simulink models using Test Sequence and Test Assessment blocks from Simulink^® Test^™. Unlike existing testing techniques, <sc>HECATE</sc> uses information from Simulink models to guide the search-based exploration. Specifically, <sc>HECATE</sc> relies on information provided by the Test Sequence and Test Assessment blocks to guide the search procedure. Across a benchmark of <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$18$</tex-math><alternatives><mml:math display="inline"><mml:mn>18</mml:mn></mml:math><inline-graphic xlink:href="menghi-ieq1-3343753.gif"/></alternatives></inline-formula> Simulink models from different domains and industries, our comparison of <sc>HECATE</sc> with the state-of-the-art testing tool <sc>S-Taliro</sc> indicates that <sc>HECATE</sc> is both more effective (more failure-revealing test cases) and efficient (less iterations and computational time) than <sc>S-Taliro</sc> for <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\approx$</tex-math><alternatives><mml:math display="inline"><mml:mo>≈</mml:mo></mml:math><inline-graphic xlink:href="menghi-ieq2-3343753.gif"/></alternatives></inline-formula>94% and <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\approx$</tex-math><alternatives><mml:math display="inline"><mml:mo>≈</mml:mo></mml:math><inline-graphic xlink:href="menghi-ieq3-3343753.gif"/></alternatives></inline-formula>83% of benchmark models respectively. Furthermore, <sc>HECATE</sc> successfully generated a failure-revealing test case for a representative case study from the automotive domain demonstrating its practical usefulness.