Test automation for augmented reality applications: a development process model and case study

Abstract Poor software quality results in avoidable costs of trillion dollars annually in the United States alone. Augmented Reality (AR) applications are a relatively new software category. Currently there are no standards to guide the development process and testing is predominantly ad hoc and manual. Consequently, design guidelines and software test automation techniques are intended to remedy the situation. Here, we present a concept for test automation of AR applications. The concept consists of two parts: design guidelines and process model for testing AR applications, and a case study with a prototype application for test automation. The design guidelines and the process model are based on the state-of-the-art. The prototype application presented in this article demonstrates test automation for a multi-platform AR application for Android devices as well as the HoloLens 2. The presented test automation case study is designed to cover a large part of the functions, such as the different interaction variants. This research work shows that by using the proposed process model and test automation techniques, testing of some features of AR applications can be automated. The results of this research can serve as a basis for future research and contribution towards AR application development standardization efforts.