Flexible Test Automation: A Software Framework for Easily Developing Measurement Applications

326 Pages·2014·29.346 MB·English

by  Pasquale Arpaia

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The framework supports the user in producing measurement
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Pasquale Arpaia holds an MS and PhD in electrical engineering
• Materials Science from University of Naples Federico II, where he is professor F
& Engineering of instrumentation and measurements. He is team leader at le for Easily Developing
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degrees in telecommunications engineering at University of
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Vitaliano Inglese received his master’s degree in automation
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engineering at the University of Sannio in 2006, and his PhD in
• Downloadable PDFs electrical engineering at University of Naples Federico II in 2010.
Pasquale Arpaia
• Free MARC records During his PhD, he worked on measurement techniques
for particle accelerator magnets, ADC testing, digital instru-
For further information, mentation and software for magnetic measurements. He Ernesto De Matteis
a free trial, or to order, published scientific papers both in journals and in conference
contact:  proceedings. He is currently working at CERN as engineer in Vitaliano Inglese
[email protected] the domain of electricity and controls applied to cryogenics.
ISBN: 978-1-60650-383-6
FLEXIBLE TEST
AUTOMATION

FLEXIBLE TEST
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PASQUALE ARPAIA,
ERNESTO DE MATTEIS, AND
VITALIANO INGLESE
MOMENTUM PRESS, LLC, NEW YORK
Flexible Test Automation: A Software Framework for Easily Developing
Measurement Applications
Copyright © Momentum Press®, LLC, 2015.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored
in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—
electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for
brief quotations, not to exceed 400 words, without the prior permission
of the publisher.
First published by Momentum Press®, LLC
222 East 46th Street, New York, NY 10017
www.momentumpress.net
ISBN-13: 978-1-60650-383-6 (print)
ISBN-13: 978-1-60650-385-0 (e-book)
Momentum Press Industrial, Systems, and Innovation Engineering
Collection
DOI: 10.5643/9781606503850
Cover and interior design by Exeter Premedia Services Private Ltd.,
Chennai, India
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America
A
bStrAct
In laboratory management of an industrial test division, a test laboratory,
or a research center, one of the main activities is producing suitable soft-
ware for automatic benches by satisfying a given set of requirements. This
activity is particularly costly and burdensome when test requirements are
variable over time. If the batches of objects under test have small size
and frequent occurrence, the activity of measurement automation becomes
predominating with respect to the execution.
In this book, the development of a software framework is shown to be
as a useful solution to satisfy this exigency. The framework supports the
user in producing measurement applications for a wide range of require-
ments with low effort and development time. Furthermore, the software
quality, in terms of flexibility, usability, and maintainability, is maximized.
After a background on software for measurement automation and the
related programming techniques, the structure and the main components
of a software framework for measurement applications are illustrated.
Their design and implementation are highlighted by referring to a prac-
tical application: the Flexible Framework for Magnetic Measurements
(FFMM) at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN).
Finally, an experimental approach to the software flexibility assessment
of measurement frameworks is presented by highlighting its application
to FFMM.
KEYWORDS
application software, automatic programming, magnetic measurements,
measurement automation, particle accelerators, software frameworks,
software systems

c
ontentS
List of Figures xi
List of Tables xvii
Summary xix
Acknowledgments xxi
Convention about the notation xxiii
Introduction xxv
PART I Background 1
1 Software for Measurement Applications 3
1.1 Overview 3
1.2 Basics 3
1.3 Main Market Solutions 5
1.4 Research: State of the Art 14
References 23
2 Software Frameworks for Measurement Applications 33
2.1 Overview 33
2.2 General Concepts 33
2.3 Why a Framework for Measurements? 36
2.4 Domain Specific Languages 38
2.5 Requirements of a Framework for Measurement Applications 41
References 43
vii
viii • COntEntS
3 Object- and Aspect-Oriented Programming
for Measurement Applications 47
3.1 Overview 47
3.2 Object-Oriented Programming 47
3.3 Aspect-Oriented Programming 56
References 62
PART II Methodology 65
4 A Flexible Software Framework for Measurement
Applications 67
4.1 Overview 67
4.2 Framework Paradigm 68
4.3 Fault Detector 79
4.4 Synchronizer 85
4.5 Measurement-Domain Specific Language 95
4.6 Advanced Generator of User Interfaces 101
References 109
5 Quality Assessment of Measurement Software 115
5.1 Overview 115
5.2 Software Quality 115
5.3 The Standard ISO 9126 120
5.4 Quality Pyramid 122
5.5 Measuring Flexibility 126
References 128
PART III Case Study 131
6 The Flexible Framework for Magnetic Measurements
at CERN 133
6.1 Overview 133
6.2 Methods for Magnetic Field Measurements 134
6.3 Automatic Systems for Magnetic Measurements 139
6.4 Software for Magnetic Measurements at CERN 140
6.5 Flexibility Requirements for Magnetic Measurement
Automation 142
COntEntS • ix
6.6 The Framework FFMM 146
References 165
7 Implementation 171
7.1 Overview 171
7.2 Base Service Layer 172
7.3 Core Service Layer 187
7.4 Measurement Service Layer 191
7.5 User Service Layer 198
7.6 Software Quality Assessment 209
References 222
8 Framework Component Validation 225
8.1 Overview 225
8.2 Fault Detector 226
8.3 Synchronizer 236
8.4 Domain Specific Language 241
8.5 Advanced User Interfaces Generator 247
References 249
9 Framework Validation on LHC-Related Applications 251
9.1 Overview 251
9.2 On-Field Functional Tests 252
9.3 Flexibility Experimental Tests 272
9.4 Discussion 277
References 278
Index 281