William J. Aldrich

Using Model Coverage Analysis to Improve the Controls Development Process

Graphical simulation tools improve the effectiveness and efficiency of embedded controls development by providing an abstract view of a component or system in a visual paradigm. These modeling tools have unambiguous semantics and can execute designs. Coverage analysis can indicate the completeness and consistency of a set of requirements. Recent advances in code synthesis allow very efficient code to be produced directly from the graphical models. When generated code is used without modification model-based coverage analysis is more effective than the same analysis performed on generated code. Coverage analysis within a modeling tool should be consistent with the executable semantics of the tool and should be presented in a form that is easily associated with the graphical diagrams.