The MathWorks Introduces Simulink Verification and Validation

“Model-Based Design reflects the convergence of proven software development and testing techniques with graphical system design, modeling, and simulation tools,” said Paul Barnard, control design automation marketing director, The MathWorks. “With the addition of Simulink Verification and Validation, The MathWorks provides a rigorous test and analysis environment within Simulink. Now, engineers can develop and reuse tests throughout requirements, design, implementation, and systems integration.”

Simulink Verification and Validation simplifies the system development workflow by allowing users to rapidly link requirements to designs and test cases and perform coverage analysis on Simulink models. Now, engineers can ensure that designs are validated earlier in the development process, by identifying inadequate requirements and exposing unnecessary constructs and design flaws at the model level. This capability is especially important as the complexity of designs increases and engineers are required to use more formal testing and documentation methods, which are crucial in safety-critical applications.

Simulink Verification and Validation also provides engineers with the ability to link their requirements to formal requirements management systems such as Telelogic’s DOORS, or to Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, or HTML-formatted files, and then navigate back and forth between the requirements and model. Additionally, users can generate coverage reports in order to view untested design elements. These reports provide industry standard metrics including RTCA/DO-178B modified condition/decision coverage (MC/DC) and are fully integrated with Simulink. Metrics can also be displayed in the model, allowing users to quickly traverse the model for missing coverage and navigate to the associated requirements.

In addition to enabling requirements-based design and test of models, Simulink Verification and Validation lets users continue verifying designs throughout the development process. Using Real-Time Workshop® Embedded Coder , engineers can include requirement descriptions as comments in the embedded code generated from the validated model. This provides a full traceability path from requirements to model to code and automates the painstaking manual traceability analysis often required for high-integrity software development.