Research On The Test Case Generation Method Based On UML Statecharts For Real-time Embedded Software

Along with the increase of embedded application, the test for real-time embedded software (RES) has been attached importance to increasingly. By now, most of the solutions used in RES test are based on formal methods which describe domains in a precise and profound way, but on the other hand require users with strong mathematical and formal logic background that make it difficult to master and use. On the contrary, UML is becoming extremely popular in industry, essentially because it is a semiformal graphical notation which make it relatively easy to understand and use without any profound mathematical knowledge, in despite of its description of domains in a way which is not very precise and profound.Analyzing the demerits of formal methods in generation of test case for RES test, we present a technique for generation of test case of RES based on UML statecharts. For limitations of UML statecharts in modeling real-time embedded system, we present a solution with the real-time extension for UML statecharts. Based on the method of state space partition presented by others, the concepts of transition equivalence class (TEC) and test case tree (TCT) are given and the algorithms of test case generation through TCT are discussed. Subsequently a vendor example that shows how to apply the method given above into realistic problems is available. At the end of this paper the design and implementation of a prototype tool RTTC is introduced.