Accelerated stress & reliability testing for software and cyber-physical systems

This paper considers the topic of accelerated testing of cyber-physical systems and software. It compares the testing of these systems to each other and to classical mechanical/electro-mechanical systems. The impact of the software (and combined hardware-software element) on accelerated testing is also considered. A case study is used to examine and illustrate key aspects of cyber-physical system testing. This case study relates to a near worst-case example: a long-duration autonomous spacecraft mission. The paper then discusses one prospective approach for testing software and cyber-physical systems, the use of an autonomous testing system, and discusses the benefits of this approach (including being able to incorporate elements of this system and its knowledge base into an onboard maintenance system) before concluding.