Model-based avionic systems testing for the airbus family

This paper is about practical verification of Airbus avionic systems during type certification, with special focus on automated testing. The material is based on test and verification services performed for Airbus by a spinoff company of the University of Bremen, as well as on consultancy services delivered by our research group to Airbus and its suppliers. In the context of model-based systems engineering, the test automation approach is currently shifting from manual test procedure programming to model-based testing (MBT), where test cases are automatically identified in models describing the application behavior, allowing for automated test data calculation and test procedure generation. We describe the situations where today's MBT technology is already adequate to increase the effectiveness of automated testing in industry. In addition, we describe some open challenges arising from practical avionic systems testing, where satisfactory solutions still require some research effort.