Model-Based Testing for Audio Devices
Firmware can change quickly during development. When it does, tests are prone to becoming bottlenecks – this is especially true when you're validating a variety of audio devices. A single routing change in firmware can cost a significant amount of debugging and guesswork. We needed a way to de-couple test scripts from firmware implementation.
This talk shows how our solution makes tests easier to maintain across multiple audio hardware projects. We'll walk through how our model-based test approach encapsulates signal paths and SKU-specific behaviour. We’ll detail how we achieved this by using a graph network model that runs alongside the device under test (DUT), computing expected signal propagation at run time. In our tests, every audio measurement is tested against acceptance criteria informed by the model.
This enables shared and abstracted tests that serve disparate projects, with scripts that read like checklists. We'll show real project examples, and demonstrate how this approach makes signal paths visible.
If you find that your test scripts are harder to maintain than the firmware they test, this talk is for you.
Max Bailey
Max Bailey is an Embedded Quality Assurance Engineer at Focusrite, specialising in test automation and validation for professional audio hardware.