Hibner: Software Testing Via Simulation

[Chris Hibner]

At the FIRST Robotics Conference I will be showing how to test your control software using simulation. The presentation will be Thursday at 8:00 a.m.

Here's the abstract:

In industry, modern control system software is thoroughly tested in simulation before it ever sees the actual hardware. With the tools provided by National Instruments, testing FIRST robotics software in simulation is easily within reach. This presentation will cover modeling techniques and how to use the models to test control strategies and software.

The presentation aims to cover the following topics:
1) why use simulation?
2) How to create a simulation environment to test your software.
3) How to create simple dynamic models of your robot system in order to test more complicated feedback control.
4) Taking your software from the simulation to the cRIO (and vice versa).

The presentation will be highly interactive and audience participation will be highly encouraged (Pavlov would be proud). The presentation will start with a clean slate, and a simple simulation example will be created. As the presentation progresses, the simulation will be expanded to cover more complex systems. As with my other presentation, all of the examples will be developed live. That should hopefully result in a good, fun learning experience for everyone (and perhaps some fun at my expense).

If time allows, the final example will be simulation of autonomous software using a simple robot drive system model.

If there is anything you would like to see addressed, feel free to post it in this thread.