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Analyze a Model

About This Example

The following sections describe an example model, Cruise Control Test Generation. This example illustrates how to use Simulink® Design Verifier™ to generate test cases that achieve complete model coverage. Through this example, you learn how to analyze models with Simulink Design Verifier and interpret the results.

Open the Model

To open the Cruise Control Test Generation model, at the MATLAB® prompt, enter:

openExample('sldv/CruiseControlTestGenerationExample',...
'supportingFile', 'sldvdemo_cruise_control');

Generate Test Cases

Run Analysis

To generate test cases for the Cruise Control Test Generation model, click on Generate Tests.

Simulink Design Verifier begins analyzing the model to generate test cases, and the Simulink Design Verifier Results Summary window opens. The Results Summary window displays a running log showing the progress of the analysis.

If you need to terminate an analysis while it is running, click Stop. The software asks if you want to produce results. If you click Yes, the software creates a data file based on the results achieved so far. The path name of the data file appears in the Results Summary window.

The data file is a MAT-file that contains a structure named sldvData. This structure stores the data that the software gathers and produces during the analysis.

For more information, see Manage Simulink Design Verifier Data Files.

Generate Analysis Results

When Simulink Design Verifier completes its analysis of the sldvdemo_cruise_control model, the Results Summary window displays several options. Some of them are:

  • Highlight analysis results on model

  • Detailed analysis report: (HTML) (PDF)

  • Create harness model

  • Simulate tests and produce a model coverage report

  • Save test cases/counterexamples to spreadsheet

Note

When you analyze other models, depending on the results of the analysis, you may see a subset of options.

The sections that follow describe these options in detail.

Highlight Analysis Results on Model

In the Simulink Design Verifier Results Summary window, if you click Highlight analysis results on model, the software highlights objects in the model in three different colors, depending on the analysis results:

When you highlight the analysis results on a model, the Simulink Design Verifier Results Inspector opens. When you click an object in the model that has analysis results, the Results Inspector displays the results summary for that object.

Green: Objectives Satisfied.  Green outline indicates that the analysis generated test cases for all the objectives for that block. If the block is a subsystem or Stateflow® atomic subchart, the green outline indicates that the analysis generated test cases for all objectives associated with the child objects.

For example, in the sldvdemo_cruise_control model, the green outline shows that the PI controller subsystem satisfied all test objectives. The Results Inspector lists the two satisfied test objectives for the PI controller subsystem.

Orange: Objectives Undecided.  Orange outline indicates that the analysis was not able to determine if an objective was satisfiable or not. This situation might occur when:

  • The analysis times out

  • The software satisfies test objectives without generating test cases due to:

    • Automatic stubbing errors

    • Limitations of the analysis engine

Red: Objectives Unsatisfiable.  Red outline indicates that the analysis found some objectives for which it could not generate test cases, most likely due to unreachable design elements in your model.

In the following example, input 2 always satisfies the criterion for the Switch block, so the Switch block never passes through the value of input 3.

Detailed analysis report: (HTML) (PDF)

In the Simulink Design Verifier Results Summary window, if you click HTMLon Detailed analysis report: (HTML) (PDF), the software saves and then opens a detailed report of the analysis. The path to the report is:

<current_folder>/sldv_output/...
     sldvdemo_cruise_control/sldvdemo_cruise_control_report.html

The HTML report includes the following chapters.

For a description of each report chapter, see:

Summary.  In the Table of Contents, click Summary to display the Summary chapter, which includes the following information under Analysis Information subsection:

  • Name of the model

  • Release and Checksum information

  • Mode of the analysis (test generation, property proving, design error detection)

  • Status of the analysis

  • Length of the analysis in seconds

The Objective Status sub-section under Summary shows number of objectives satisfied.

Analysis Information.  In the Table of Contents, click Analysis Information to display information about the analyzed model and the analysis options. You can click on any of these options to know more about the model analysis.

Test Objectives Status.  In the Table of Contents, click Test Objectives Status to display a table of satisfied objectives. The following figure shows a partial list of the objectives satisfied in the Cruise Control Test Generation model.

Objectives Status

The Objectives Satisfied table lists the following information for the model:

  • # — Objective number

  • Type — Objective type

  • Model Item — Element in the model for which the objective was tested. Click this link to display the model with this element highlighted.

  • Description — Description of the objective

  • Test Case — Test case that achieves the objective. Click this link for more information about that test case.

In the row for objective 32, click the test case number (5) to display more information about Test Case 5 in the report's Test Cases chapter.

Test Case 5

In this example, Test Case 5 satisfies one objective, that the integration result be greater than or equal to the upper limit T in the Discrete-Time Integrator block. The table lists the values of the six signals from time 0 through time 0.06.

Model Items.  In the Table of Contents, click Model Items to see detailed information about each item in the model that defines coverage objectives. This table includes the status of the objective at the end of the analysis. Click the links in the table for detailed information about the satisfied objectives.

Model Items - Controller/Switch3

Model Items - Controller/Switch2

Test Cases.  In the Table of Contents, click Test Cases to display detailed information about each generated test case, including:

  • Length of time to execute the test case

  • Number of objectives satisfied

  • Detailed information about the satisfied objectives

  • Input data

For an example, see the section for Test Case 5 in Test Objectives Status.

Create Harness Model

In the Simulink Design Verifier Results Summary window, if you click Create harness model, the software creates and opens a harness model named sldvdemo_cruise_control_harness.

The harness model contains the following blocks:

  • The Test Case Explanation block is a DocBlock block that documents the generated test cases. Double-click the Test Case Explanation block to view a description of each test case for the objectives that the test case satisfies.

  • The Test Unit block is a Subsystem block that contains a copy of the original model that the software analyzed. Double-click the Test Unit block to view its contents and confirm that it is a copy of the Cruise Control Test Generation model.

    Note

    You can configure the harness model to reference the model that you are analyzing using a Model block instead of using a subsystem. In the Configuration Parameters dialog box, on the Design Verifier > Results pane, select Generate separate harness model after analysis and Reference input model in generated harness.

  • The Inputs block is a Signal Builder block that contains the generated test case signals. Double-click the Inputs block to open the Signal Builder dialog box and view the eight test case signals.

  • The Size-Type block is a subsystem that transmits signals from the Inputs block to the Test Unit block. This block verifies that the size and data type of the signals are consistent with the Test Unit block.

The Signal Builder dialog box contains eight test cases.

  1. To view Test Case 5, from the Active Group list, select Test Case 5.

    In Test Case 7 at 0.01 seconds:

    • The enable and inc signals remain 1.

    • The brake and dec signals remain 0.

    • The set signal transitions from 1 to 0.

    • The speed signal transitions from 100 to 0.

    In the Signal Builder block, the signal group satisfies the test objectives described in the Test Case Explanation block.

  2. To confirm that Simulink Design Verifier achieved complete model coverage, simulate the harness model using all the test cases. In the Signal Builder dialog box, click the Run all and produce coverage button .

    The Simulink software simulates all the test cases. The Simulink Coverage™ software collects coverage data for the harness model and displays a coverage report. The report summary shows that the sldvdemo_cruise_control_harness model achieves 100% coverage.

    Summary

Simulate Tests and Produce Model Coverage Report

In the Simulink Design Verifier Results Summary window, if you click Simulate tests and produce a model coverage report, the software simulates the model and produces a coverage report for the sldvdemo_cruise_control model. The software stores the report with the following name:

<current_folder>/sldv_output/sldvdemo_cruise_control/...
		sldvdemo_cruise_control_report.html

When you click Run all and produce coverage to simulate tests in the harness model, you may see the following differences between this coverage report and the report you generated for the model itself:

  • The harness model coverage report might contain additional time steps. When you collect coverage for the harness model, the model stop time equals the stop time for the longest test case. As a result, you might achieve additional coverage when you simulate the shorter test cases.

  • The cyclomatic complexity coverage for the Test Unit subsystem in the harness model might be different than the coverage for the model itself due to the structure of the harness model.

Save Test Cases/Counterexamples to Spreadsheet

If you prefer to save the generated test cases or counterexamples in a spreadsheet, click Save test cases/counterexamples to spreadsheet in the Simulink Design Verifier Results Summary window.

Combine Test Cases

If you prefer to review results that are combined into a smaller number of test cases, set the Test suite optimization parameter to LongTestcases. When you use the LongTestcases optimization, the analysis generates fewer, but longer, test cases that each satisfy multiple test objectives.

Open the sldvdemo_cruise_control model and rerun the analysis with the LongTestcases optimization:

  1. On the Design Verifier tab, in the Prepare section, from the drop-down menu for the mode settings, click Settings.

  2. In the Configuration Parameters dialog box, in the Select tree on the left side, under the Design Verifier category, select Test Generation.

  3. Set the Test suite optimization parameter to LongTestcases.

  4. Click Apply and OK to close the Configuration Parameters dialog box.

  5. In the sldvdemo_cruise_control model, double-click the block labeled Run.

  6. In the Results Summary window, click Create harness model.

    In the harness model, the Signal Builder block and the Test Case Explanation block now contain one longer test case instead of the eight shorter test cases created earlier in Generate Test Cases.

  7. Click Run all and produce coverage to collect coverage.

    The analysis still satisfies all 34 objectives.