DeviceVeri-A Graphical Programming Based Test Script Generation Framework for Measurement Devices

Manufacturing and Process Industries use a complex and wide range of measurement devices to measure real-time process variables like temperature, pressure, and flow rate. Control systems use the measured process variables to manage various industrial operations like opening/closing a valve, raising alarms, etc. Inaccurate recording of process variables can lead to industrial failures or affect the production quality of manufactured goods. Verification of measurement devices thus becomes imperative to ensure maximum performance of industrial processes. Traditionally, subject matter experts and testers define the pseudo logic of a test case, which software developers further convert to executable test scripts to be run on devices. However, this manual generation of test scripts is cumbersome, time-consuming, lacks standardization, and depends mainly on the software developers’ competency. Automatic generation of test scripts thus becomes necessary for quick, reliable, and efficient testing of measurement devices.This paper presents a device verification framework called DeviceVeri, based on graphical programming to generate executable test scripts for verifying measurement devices. General and device-specific graphical blocks represent specific functionalities of device verification logic. Graphical blocks abstract technical details from users, making the test script generation process simple, less time-intensive, and user-friendly. The framework will be used by process engineers, testers and subject matter experts to generate test scripts and use them to verify measurement devices. In addition, the proposed framework minimizes the dependency on software developers to write test scripts manually, thus enhancing the testing process of measurement devices.