T&VS and University of Bristol to investigate testing of complex Cyber Physical Systems

TVS, a leader in the software test and hardware verification domains, willwork with the University of Bristol todevelop new engineering methods to test software that controls cyber physical systems (CPS) thanks to funding from Innovate UK.

Developers of CPS have recognised that the current SoftwareVerification and Validation
techniques will not copeas CPS become increasingly complex. Hardware verification faced a similar issue 20 years ago and developed new verification techniques to overcome this. Those techniques are now widely adopted and hardware developers are able to verify increasingly complex designs so that they reach the market in a timely fashion and are able to function sufficiently for the target market. 

TVS, who are leading the project, will work with the University of Bristol and end user CPS developers – Thales, Dyson and SCISYS – to better understand how to apply those hardware techniques to the verification of software for CPS. 

Mike Bartley, CEO and Founder of TVS, said:“Cyber physical systems will start to touch every part of our life. From robotic vacuum cleaners and online orders delivered by drone, to autonomous cars. Ensuring such systems are fully tested and safe to use can be both expensive and time consuming and consequentlya potential barrier to market entry. The project will investigate if techniques successfully adopted in hardware design verification can be adapted to work with complex software.” 

The involvement of end users Thales, Dyson and SCISYS is a key to the potential success of the project. All three are developing CPS and have identified testing as a major technical challenge. They will be defining requirements for tooling to enable them to deploy the hardware verification concepts to their respective CPS. TVS will be developing the tools that the end users will trial to test their CPS. 

The University of Bristolhas recently developed novel model-based test generation techniques to target specific use cases or requirements far more effectively than conventional methods can.How to apply these techniques to complex real-world CPS will be investigated as part of this collaborative project. 

Dr Kerstin Eder, Reader in Design Automation and Verification in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Bristol and leader of the verification and validation for safety in robots research theme at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory,added: “Model Based Test Generation techniques can significantly improve verification productivity. Achieving coverage closure faster and in an automated fashion saves engineering effort in practice. Thisproject will enrich the University’s research in various ways: it brings new understanding of practical requirements into the University to drive new research; it provides access to real-world usecases; it helps us foster strong and lasting links to industrial partners that work at the leading edge of autonomous systems engineering and verification tool development. The knowledge and technology transfer in this collaboration is an excellent route to impact for our research.”