Automatic test case generation from requirements specifications for real-time embedded systems

This paper presents continuing research toward automatic generation of test cases from requirements specifications for event-oriented, real-time embedded systems. The requirements documentation and test case generation activities make up the initial steps in our method to realize model-based codesign. In this codesign method, test cases are used to validate system models and prototypes against the requirements specification. This ensures coherence between the system models at various levels of detail, the system prototype, and the final system design. Automating the test case generation process provides a means to ensure that the test cases have been derived in a consistent and objective manner and that all system requirements have been covered. The formulation and difficulty of the test case generation problem are discussed and a heuristic algorithm to automatically generate test cases is presented. The inputs to the algorithm are extracted from the requirements specification. The algorithm is a two phase exploration of the system states defined in the requirements specification. The goal is to generate a suite of test cases that provide complete coverage of all documented system requirements. A design example is presented that is used to illustrate the generation of test-cases