Control and data flow testing on function block diagrams

Abstract

As programmable logic controllers(PLCs) have been used in safety-critical applications, testing of PLC applications has become important. The previous PLC-based software testing technique generates intermediate code, such as C, from function block diagram(FBD) networks and uses the intermediate code for testing purposes. In this paper, we propose a direct testing technique on FBD without generating intermediate code. In order to test FBD, we define testing granularity in terms of function blocks and propose an algorithm that transforms an FBD network to a flow graph. We apply existing control and data flow testing coverage criteria to the flow graph in order to generate test cases. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, we use a trip logic of BP(Bistable Processor) at RPS(Reactor Protection System) in DPPS(Digital Plant Protection System) which is currently being developed at KNICS[1] in Korea.