@phdthesis{13480,
  author = {Morten Mossige},
  title = {Testing Robotics Software using Constraint Programming in a Continuous Integration Process},
  abstract = {Testing complex integrated robots (CIRs) requires testing several interactingcontrol systems. This task is challenging, especially for robotsperforming process-intensive tasks such as painting or gluing, since theirdedicated process control systems can be loosely coupled with the robot\&$\#$39;smotion control.Current practices for validating CIRs involve manual test case designand execution. To reduce testing costs and improve quality assurance, onetrend has been to automate the generation of test cases and execute thetest case automatically as part of a continuous integration process.This thesis makes two main contributions. First, we present a methodologyfor the fully automated testing of CIR control systems. Our approachis based on a novel constraint-based model for automatically generatingtest sequences, where test sequences are both generated and executed aspart of a continuous integration process. We call the methodology CATS,which is short for Constraint-based Automatic Testing of IPS, where IPSis an abbreviation for ABB Robotics\&$\#$39; integrated paint control system.Second, we present TC-Sched, a cost-eective method for automatictest case execution scheduling on multiple machines with constraints onaccessible resources, such as measurement devices or network equipment.TC-Sched is also based on a constraint-based model and is designed to beintegrated with and executed as part of continuous integration process.The combinations of CATS and TC-Sched represent an ecient methodfor quickly validating the critical software components of CIRs. We rstuse CATS to automatically generate test cases. We then use TC-Schedto optimally schedule the test cases. We show that, when operating in acontinuous integration process, there is a trade-o between the time spentsolving the constraint model and the time spent executing the result ofthe model.To evaluate our approach, we integrated CATS within ABB Robotics\&$\#$39;continuous integration process. A full lab for the automatic testing ofactual embedded control systems was built. The rst version of the modelwas introduced two years ago and has been extended several times. ForTC-Sched, the method was tested on several real industrial test suites, inaddition to a large set of randomly generated test suites. The results arepromising and ABB Robotics has decided to implement TC-Sched in afull-scale setting at its research facilities at Bryne.iiiIn conclusion, the research presented in this thesis shows that solvingconstraint programming models as part of a continuous integration processcan generate realistic test cases and ecient test execution schedules. Theresearch also shows that the solving process can be performed so that thetrade-o between solving time and execution time is optimal.},
  year = {2015},
  journal = {University of Stavanger},
  publisher = {University of Stavanger},
  isbn = {ISBN 978-82-7644-613-5},
}