Verification, Validation, and Testing of Engineered Systems

2.5 VVT ACTIVITIES DURING INTEGRATION

The purpose of the system Integration phase is to combine the system components or subsystems into a complete system. Integration encompasses a series of planning tasks and activities that bring system elements together in an orderly manner while verifying that their relationships are in accordance with the architecture. Integration requires nearly continuous testing.

2.5.1 Develop System Integration Laboratory (SIL)

Objective

The objective of this VVT activity is to design and build a System Integration Laboratory (SIL), otherwise known as a hardware-in-the-loop integration test facility. The purpose of the SIL is to validate the system during and after integration within a mixture of virtual and real subsystem environments. This is done by testing an evolving system using a combination of virtual models of subsystems and real subsystems.

Description

The integration and testing of complex systems is normally achieved by an iterative succession of integration and testing steps. Initially a virtual prototype of the system is formed by creating a simulated system environment using a collection of virtual subsystems (software and hardware simulators) in lieu of the planned real subsystems.

The virtual prototype of the complete system is exercised to record inputs for the later more realistic assembly model of the complete system and to specify the desired subsystem outputs. The assembly model is then exercised using these inputs and tested ...