Automatic test of space rendezvous and docking GNC software

Abstract

The GNC for the space rendezvous and docking is a complex system. Software testing is the practical methodology to ensure the reliability and robustness of software in industrial domain. Too much effort is taken in software testing because it is extremely high that the reliability and robustness of software on GNC. This chapter proposes an automatic testing methodology towards the software of GNC for the space rendezvous and docking. There are several phases in the process of such methodology: management of test case and test scripts, automatic execution of the testing process, test data interpretation and test defect management. Practical experiments show that the proposed automatic testing methodology significantly improves the software development process efficiently. Therefore, it plays an important role in developing and validating the software on GNC. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.