Lean automated hardware/software integration test strategy for embedded systems

The integration of software components in safety-critical systems requires dedicated verification of software components on the target hardware platform. Executing Processor In the Loop (PIL) tests on a microcontroller as verification of software components in a target environment are established as a common method. For the automated verification of associated hardware peripherals the PIL test strategy is extended by applying comprehensive Hardware In the Loop (HIL) tests. Functional verification based on a PIL test setup requires extensive instrumentation in addition to the productive software on the microcontroller. An alternative strategy for the automation of hardware/software integration verification methods on microcontroller target environments is proposed in this work. By carrying out tests on the host platform which, on the one hand interacts with the HIL test system and on the other hand communicates with the microcontroller via a debugger, overcomes the extensive instrumentation on the microcontroller target environment. A concept for a test platform and how to use it for software component and integration tests, as well as for hardware/software integration tests in a given target environment is presented in this paper. This platform was evaluated by verifying Low-Level Driver software components on the respective microcontroller target environment. The efficiency of the test runtime with automated execution was compared and analyzed with those of manual tests.