Amortising the Cost of Mutation Based Fault Localisation using Statistical Inference

Mutation analysis can effectively capture the dependency between source code and test results. This has been exploited by Mutation Based Fault Localisation (MBFL) techniques. However, MBFL techniques suffer from the need to expend the high cost of mutation analysis after the observation of failures, which may present a challenge for its practical adoption. We introduce SIMFL (Statistical Inference for Mutation-based Fault Localisation), an MBFL technique that allows users to perform the mutation analysis in advance against an earlier version of the system. SIMFL uses mutants as artificial faults and aims to learn the failure patterns among test cases against different locations of mutations. Once a failure is observed, SIMFL requires either almost no or very small additional cost for analysis, depending on the used inference model. An empirical evaluation of SIMFL using 355 faults in Defects4J shows that SIMFL can successfully localise up to 103 faults at the top, and 152 faults within the top five, on par with state-of-the-art alternatives. The cost of mutation analysis can be further reduced by mutation sampling: SIMFL retains over 80% of its localisation accuracy at the top rank when using only 10% of generated mutants, compared to results obtained without sampling

Spectrum-Based Fault Localization in Model Transformations

Model transformations play a cornerstone role in Model-Driven Engineering (MDE), as they provide the essential mechanisms for manipulating and transforming models. The correctness of software built using MDE techniques greatly relies on the correctness of model transformations. However, it is challenging and error prone to debug them, and the situation gets more critical as the size and complexity of model transformations grow, where manual debugging is no longer possible. Spectrum-Based Fault Localization (SBFL) uses the results of test cases and their corresponding code coverage information to estimate the likelihood of each program component (e.g., statements) of being faulty. In this article we present an approach to apply SBFL for locating the faulty rules in model transformations. We evaluate the feasibility and accuracy of the approach by comparing the effectiveness of 18 different stateof- the-art SBFL techniques at locating faults in model transformations. Evaluation results revealed that the best techniques, namely Kulcynski2, Mountford, Ochiai, and Zoltar, lead the debugger to inspect a maximum of three rules to locate the bug in around 74% of the cases. Furthermore, we compare our approach with a static approach for fault localization in model transformations, observing a clear superiority of the proposed SBFL-based method.Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología TIN2015-70560-RJunta de Andalucía P12-TIC-186

AWARE: Platform for Autonomous self-deploying and operation of Wireless sensor-actuator networks cooperating with unmanned AeRial vehiclEs

This paper presents the AWARE platform that seeks to enable the cooperation of autonomous aerial vehicles with ground wireless sensor-actuator networks comprising both static and mobile nodes carried by vehicles or people. Particularly, the paper presents the middleware, the wireless sensor network, the node deployment by means of an autonomous helicopter, and the surveillance and tracking functionalities of the platform. Furthermore, the paper presents the first general experiments of the AWARE project that took place in March 2007 with the assistance of the Seville fire brigades

Fault Localization Automation using Code Coverage Data and Diff Utilities

Performing fault localization is one of the most time consuming and expensive aspects of software development today. In large software systems the manual fault localization techniques quickly become unmanageable and as such there is a growing need for automated solutions. In this master’s thesis we propose and evaluate a new method for fault localization based on comparing code coverage and diff utility data. The implemented tool is called FLAC which consists of both a Java application that performs the necessary functionality and a Qlik Sense application designed for visualization purposes. The FLAC prototype is restricted to JavaScripts but the method can be applied to all types of software development projects that employ version control and have the ability to gather code coverage data from test executions. Our method is evaluated by applying it to otherwise stable software that has been injected with faults, analyzing efficiency and performance information and also through interviews. Our results indicate that this method can significantly increase fault localization efficiency

On Fault Diagnosis using Bayesian Networks ; A Case Study of Combinational Adders.

In this paper, we use Bayesian networks to reduce the set of vectors for the test and the diagnosis of combinational circuits. We are able to integrate any fault model (such as bit-flip and stuck-at models) and consider either single or multiple faults. We apply our method to adders and obtain a minimum set of vectors for a complete diagnosis in the case of the bit-flip model. A very good diagnosis coverage for the stuck-at fault model is found with a minimum set of test vectors and a complete diagnosis by adding few vectors