Applying regression testing to software for robot hardware interaction

If robots are to be fully accepted in the homes and offices of the world, it is important that they are guaranteed to be reliable and not to cause damage or harm. This requires testing robot systems and the software that comprises them. But testing robot software has always been a difficult process for developers. Issues of repeatability, safety, access to hardware and the general complexity of robot software are encountered. In industrial robotics, these difficulties are mitigated somewhat by the relatively simple, repeatable tasks and the controlled environment. Robotics for real-world environments, on the other hand, face the full challenges of testing. In this paper, we discuss regression testing at a low level of individual software components, particularly those components that are designed to interface with robot hardware. We present a software system for regression testing these components in a fully repeatable fashion as a case study of performing such testing in robotics. The presented system provides an efficient and quick method to monitor changes in the behaviour of software components as they are developed. Developers of robot software can quickly discover undesired changes and correct them.