Comparing test sets and criteria in the presence of test hypotheses and fault domains

A number of authors have considered the problem of comparing test sets and criteria. Ideally test sets are compared using a preorder with the property that test set T1 is at least as strong as T2 if whenever T2 determines that an implementation p is faulty, T1 will also determine that p is faulty. This notion can be extended to test criteria. However, it has been noted that very few test sets and criteria are comparable under such an ordering; instead orderings are based on weaker properties such as subsumes. This paper explores an alternative approach, in which comparisons are made in the presence of a test hypothesis or fault domain. This approach allows strong statements about fault detecting ability to be made and yet for a number of test sets and criteria to be comparable. It may also drive incremental test generation

Statistical process monitoring of a multiphase flow facility

Industrial needs are evolving fast towards more flexible manufacture schemes. As a consequence, it is often required to adapt the plant production to the demand, which can be volatile depending on the application. This is why it is important to develop tools that can monitor the condition of the process working under varying operational conditions. Canonical Variate Analysis (CVA) is a multivariate data driven methodology which has been demonstrated to be superior to other methods, particularly under dynamically changing operational conditions. These comparative studies normally use computer simulated data in benchmark case studies such as the Tennessee Eastman Process Plant (Ricker, N.L. Tennessee Eastman Challenge Archive, Available at 〈http://depts.washington.edu/control/LARRY/TE/download.html〉 Accessed 21.03.2014). The aim of this work is to provide a benchmark case to demonstrate the ability of different monitoring techniques to detect and diagnose artificially seeded faults in an industrial scale multiphase flow experimental rig. The changing operational conditions, the size and complexity of the test rig make this case study an ideal candidate for a benchmark case that provides a test bed for the evaluation of novel multivariate process monitoring techniques performance using real experimental data. In this paper, the capabilities of CVA to detect and diagnose faults in a real system working under changing operating conditions are assessed and compared with other methodologies. The results obtained demonstrate that CVA can be effectively applied for the detection and diagnosis of faults in real complex systems, and reinforce the idea that the performance of CVA is superior to other algorithms

Sequential Circuit Design for Embedded Cryptographic Applications Resilient to Adversarial Faults

In the relatively young field of fault-tolerant cryptography, the main research effort has focused exclusively on the protection of the data path of cryptographic circuits. To date, however, we have not found any work that aims at protecting the control logic of these circuits against fault attacks, which thus remains the proverbial Achilles’ heel. Motivated by a hypothetical yet realistic fault analysis attack that, in principle, could be mounted against any modular exponentiation engine, even one with appropriate data path protection, we set out to close this remaining gap. In this paper, we present guidelines for the design of multifault-resilient sequential control logic based on standard Error-Detecting Codes (EDCs) with large minimum distance. We introduce a metric that measures the effectiveness of the error detection technique in terms of the effort the attacker has to make in relation to the area overhead spent in implementing the EDC. Our comparison shows that the proposed EDC-based technique provides superior performance when compared against regular N-modular redundancy techniques. Furthermore, our technique scales well and does not affect the critical path delay

JWalk: a tool for lazy, systematic testing of java classes by design introspection and user interaction

Popular software testing tools, such as JUnit, allow frequent retesting of modified code; yet the manually created test scripts are often seriously incomplete. A unit-testing tool called JWalk has therefore been developed to address the need for systematic unit testing within the context of agile methods. The tool operates directly on the compiled code for Java classes and uses a new lazy method for inducing the changing design of a class on the fly. This is achieved partly through introspection, using Java’s reflection capability, and partly through interaction with the user, constructing and saving test oracles on the fly. Predictive rules reduce the number of oracle values that must be confirmed by the tester. Without human intervention, JWalk performs bounded exhaustive exploration of the class’s method protocols and may be directed to explore the space of algebraic constructions, or the intended design state-space of the tested class. With some human interaction, JWalk performs up to the equivalent of fully automated state-based testing, from a specification that was acquired incrementally

Novel spectral kurtosis technology for adaptive vibration condition monitoring of multi-stage gearboxes

In this paper, the novel wavelet spectral kurtosis (WSK) technique is applied for the early diagnosis of gear tooth faults. Two variants of the wavelet spectral kurtosis technique, called variable resolution WSK and constant resolution WSK, are considered for the diagnosis of pitting gear faults. The gear residual signal, obtained by filtering the gear mesh frequencies, is used as the input to the SK algorithm. The advantages of using the wavelet-based SK techniques when compared to classical Fourier transform (FT)-based SK is confirmed by estimating the toothwise Fisher's criterion of diagnostic features. The final diagnosis decision is made by a three-stage decision-making technique based on the weighted majority rule. The probability of the correct diagnosis is estimated for each SK technique for comparison. An experimental study is presented in detail to test the performance of the wavelet spectral kurtosis techniques and the decision-making technique

Failure monitoring in dynamic systems: Model construction without fault training data

Advances in the use of autoregressive models, pattern recognition methods, and hidden Markov models for on-line health monitoring of dynamic systems (such as DSN antennas) have recently been reported. However, the algorithms described in previous work have the significant drawback that data acquired under fault conditions are assumed to be available in order to train the model used for monitoring the system under observation. This article reports that this assumption can be relaxed and that hidden Markov monitoring models can be constructed using only data acquired under normal conditions and prior knowledge of the system characteristics being measured. The method is described and evaluated on data from the DSS 13 34-m beam wave guide antenna. The primary conclusion from the experimental results is that the method is indeed practical and holds considerable promise for application at the 70-m antenna sites where acquisition of fault data under controlled conditions is not realistic