Test System Abstraction Layer for Decoupling Test Cases
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing automated test systems for electronic control units are proprietary, making it difficult to develop independent test cases, adapt to different systems, and reuse test cases across manufacturers and variants, due to specific interfaces and test description languages, limiting flexibility and cost-effectiveness.
Innovation Solution
A functional unit, known as the Test System Abstraction Layer (TSAL), acts as a mediator to decouple logical test cases from specific test systems by providing interfaces for test description languages, test steps, and test tools, allowing for system-independent execution and reuse of test cases without adaptation, and mapping logical addresses to physical addresses using configurable translation tables.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If test cases directly call proprietary interfaces of the test system, then the test system can execute tests, but the test cases become dependent on the specific test system and cannot be reused across different systems
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a functional unit acting as an intermediary layer between test cases and the test system. This functional unit provides standardized interfaces that test cases call, while internally mapping these calls to the proprietary interfaces of the specific test system. This mediator approach allows test cases to be independent of the underlying test system implementation, enabling reuse across different systems without modification.
2Ease of manufacture
If test cases are adapted to specific test systems, then execution is possible, but adaptation costs increase when changing or exchanging test systems
Solution Approach 1:
The functional unit is designed with universal interface capabilities that can adapt to multiple different test systems. By implementing a standardized interface layer that can map to various proprietary interfaces, the system achieves multi-functionality where the same test cases can be executed on different test systems without adaptation, significantly reducing conversion costs and enabling easy exchange of test systems.
3Adaptability or versatility
If test description language is specific to a test system, then the test system can execute tests, but reuse of test systems across different languages becomes impossible or very costly
Solution Approach 1:
The functional unit serves as a language-agnostic intermediary that receives test cases in various test description languages through standardized interfaces. It translates and maps these language-specific calls to the internal test system commands, enabling support for multiple test description languages without requiring the test system itself to understand each language, thus avoiding costly translation processes.
4Adaptability or versatility
If concrete physical addresses are coded in test cases for access to input and output signals, then the test case works for a specific variant, but reuse for various variants of the test specimen becomes difficult or impossible
Solution Approach 1:
The functional unit implements parameter mapping capabilities that translate abstract logical addresses used in test cases to concrete physical addresses specific to each test specimen variant. By changing the address mapping parameters based on the target variant, the same test case can be applied to multiple variants without modification, while the functional unit handles the complexity of address translation internally.
Data Source
AI summary
A functional unit for carrying out logical test cases on a test system interconnected to a unit that is to be tested, the functional unit being suitable for being interconnected between the logical test cases and the test system in such a way that the logical test cases are decoupled from the test system, and, in this context, for supporting an execution of the logical test cases on the test system as mediator.