Model-based Generation of a Sensor Reading Web Test Tool

Abstract: This Bachelor’s thesis is in collaboration with Saab Kockums AB. Saab Kockums develops and constructs marine technology, ships and submarines for civil and military use. In different development stages for systems to be implemented and built on ships, submarines or the like, different components such as sensors or information display systems need to be tested and functionality verified. For the system to work, the interfaces between components need to be able to send consistent and compatible data adhering to a standard. The communication requirements between interfaces are specified in an Interface Requirement Specification (IRS). To effectively test new hardware built by a third party requires a test tool to be built. Today, such a test tool is constructed from scratch for each project, a time-consuming process. A small change to the IRS can also add significant manual synchronization effort across different stakeholders and developers. This thesis investigates how to construct a generic test tool using a minimal machine-readable specification. We built a test tool that introduces dynamic specification of any field-based protocol with the use of an XML specification format. This test tool is designed to send, receive, and validate the user-specified protocols with the help of a React based web user interface and Saab’s WISE framework for a modular network architecture. The implemented parts are the CJEX library, a React application, and the WISE components ParseSE, TLDriver and APIDriver, along with an XML standard for the solution. To validate the tool, we used a specification for an Inertial Navigation System (INS) that communicates using the NMEA 0183 protocol, and can send updates with a frequency up to 100 Hz. In addition, we also demonstrate the test tool’s flexibility to support multiple protocols by implementing a JSON protocol.