Hardware-in-the-Loop Testing
Performing Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) tests on software-driven systems is required by most safety standards. In these tests, the compiled software is tested on the final target device, either in an open-loop or, together with a plant model running on a testbench system, in a closed-loop. The main goal of HIL testing is to detect errors that occur as a result of the combination of soft- and hardware. Besides, errors that are caused by systematic problems with the hardware itself can also be found.
As for MIL and SIL tests, HIL testing requires a detailed test specification and implementation. Transferring your system requirements into test suites for different environments can be cumbersome and error-prone. Thus, these steps should be done carefully and with optimal tooling assistance to avoid erroneous test definitions.
With Arttest, you have several possibilities for HIL testing. One of the main advantages in all of these is that you can reuse the test case definitions from earlier testing stages, e.g., MIL. Therefore, repeatedly providing test specifications for each testing level over and over again, is no longer required.
Using Arttest with Off-the-Shelf Third-Party Testbenches
Arttest can drive a variety of commercial testbenches that are available on the market. This allows you to use or use standard industrial testing devices on the one hand and, at the same time, benefit from the convenient and powerful test specification and evaluation features of Arttest on the other.
Depending on the particular HIL system, even advanced features known from MIL testing are available in the HIL test, such as: accessing internal signals of the plant model, reactive testing, dynamically configurable evaluation methods, and so forth.
We would be very happy to discuss how Arttest could improve the workflows on your HIL testbenches. Please do not hesitate to give us a call or send us a message.
Arttest HIL
For many applications, off-the-shelf testbenches are either unsuitable or just too expensive to yield real benefit. The latter is particularly the case for small or rather simple devices. Nonetheless, these often require proper HIL testing.
We offer custom HIL devices tailored to the needs of your applications wherever off-the-shelf solutions are not an option. Particularly in situations that require only a relatively small testing device, buying a large dedicated testbench can cause disproportional cost.
Our Arttest HIL framework encompasses a real-time test execution engine that runs on top of Real-Time Linux. Thanks to that, the CPU of the testbench can flexibly be scaled to the needs of the application. For the I/O, we use industrial standard terminals, which provide the necessary robustness and reliability, making it suitable for many applications. The entire configuration along with the test case definitions can be done conveniently in Arttest using our Test Definition Language.