Automated Control Logic Test Case Generation using Large Language Models

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Koziolek, Heiko, Ashiwal, Virendra, Bandyopadhyay, Soumyadip, R, Chandrika K
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2024
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author Koziolek, Heiko
Ashiwal, Virendra
Bandyopadhyay, Soumyadip
R, Chandrika K
author_facet Koziolek, Heiko
Ashiwal, Virendra
Bandyopadhyay, Soumyadip
R, Chandrika K
contents Testing PLC and DCS control logic in industrial automation is laborious and challenging since appropriate test cases are often complex and difficult to formulate. Researchers have previously proposed several automated test case generation approaches for PLC software applying symbolic execution and search-based techniques. Often requiring formal specifications and performing a mechanical analysis of programs, these approaches may uncover specific programming errors but sometimes suffer from state space explosion and cannot process rather informal specifications. We proposed a novel approach for the automatic generation of PLC test cases that queries a Large Language Model (LLM) to synthesize test cases for code provided in a prompt. Experiments with ten open-source function blocks from the OSCAT automation library showed that the approach is fast, easy to use, and can yield test cases with high statement coverage for low-to-medium complex programs. However, we also found that LLM-generated test cases suffer from erroneous assertions in many cases, which still require manual adaption.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2405_01874
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Automated Control Logic Test Case Generation using Large Language Models
Koziolek, Heiko
Ashiwal, Virendra
Bandyopadhyay, Soumyadip
R, Chandrika K
Software Engineering
Testing PLC and DCS control logic in industrial automation is laborious and challenging since appropriate test cases are often complex and difficult to formulate. Researchers have previously proposed several automated test case generation approaches for PLC software applying symbolic execution and search-based techniques. Often requiring formal specifications and performing a mechanical analysis of programs, these approaches may uncover specific programming errors but sometimes suffer from state space explosion and cannot process rather informal specifications. We proposed a novel approach for the automatic generation of PLC test cases that queries a Large Language Model (LLM) to synthesize test cases for code provided in a prompt. Experiments with ten open-source function blocks from the OSCAT automation library showed that the approach is fast, easy to use, and can yield test cases with high statement coverage for low-to-medium complex programs. However, we also found that LLM-generated test cases suffer from erroneous assertions in many cases, which still require manual adaption.
title Automated Control Logic Test Case Generation using Large Language Models
topic Software Engineering
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.01874