Page - 90 - in The Future of Software Quality Assurance

90 R. Marselis The test engineer now has to go through the set of predicted outcomes and find defectsbeforetheyoccur in thefield. Inasense, the test engineerbecomesaquality forecaster. 3.2 RobotsTestingPhysical Machines Test engineering is often seen as a “software-only” activity. But in the digital age most intelligentsystemsconsistof softwareandhardwarecomponents that together will have to comply with specified quality criteria. The testing of the software part can be supported by AI-powered testing tools. For the hardware part robots can be of great use. There are different reasons to think about robots for testing physical equipment: Response toLimitationofSoftwareTesting Approach Automated system tests can be realized by substituting control devices by a software solution. This is possible nowadays, but in a lot of cases it would require workingaroundadvancedsecurityandsafetymechanismsand thereforepreventing companies from testing the product end-to-end in a “customer state.” Using robots in thephysicalenvironmenttoworkwith thephysicalendproduct in theend-to-end solutionenables testing inan environmentclose to real life. Flexibilityof the Testing Solution Customized solutions for each specific control device are used for automated system testing. A more universal approach with lightweight robots and standard componentshelps to gain speed in terms of including new control devices into the test environment. Just as with GUI test automation, standard building blocks can be used in the physical domain as well. It could even go so far as to recognize physical interfaces (buttons, switches, touch pads,panels, etc.) and have a standard interactionavailable for the robot to workwith. MoreTesting andFewerCosts With an automated robotic test set in place, it can also be used in production environments.Small lotproductioncanbe testednothaving topayfor relative long manual test activities executedon each production item. The long-termavailability of such test facilities provides long-term product support (even after specific test knowledge has left the company). The test solution can also scale up to large test setsor to largevolumetest automationactivities. ManageRepeatabilityof Interaction Inorder tocomparetest results, timingofphysical interactionwithasystemmaybe mandatory.A humanoperator isnotable tobeaspreciseas is required.Robotics is agood tool to cover this issue.