What Is Simulink Coverage?

Siddharth Jawahar, MathWorks

Simulink Coverage™ performs model and code coverage analysis that measures testing completeness in models and generated code. It applies industry-standard metrics such as decision, condition, modified condition/decision coverage (MC/DC), and relational boundary coverage to assess the effectiveness of simulation testing in models, software-in-the-loop (SIL), and processor-in-the-loop (PIL). You can use missing coverage data to find gaps in testing, missing requirements, or unintended functionality.

Simulink Coverage produces interactive reports showing how much of your model, C /C++ S-functions, MATLAB^® functions, and code generated by Embedded Coder^® has been exercised. You can highlight coverage results in blocks and subsystems to visualize gaps in testing. To assess testing completeness, you can accumulate coverage data from multiple test runs, as well as view coverage achieved through unit and system tests. Coverage outcomes can be traced to requirements and tests. You can apply filters to exclude blocks from coverage and justify missing coverage in reports.

Simulink Coverage helps you find gaps in your testing of Simulink models and generated code.

At the end of a simulation run, you can view the coverage results on the model.

The objects in green indicate full coverage, while those in red were not fully covered. For example, this PI Controller block in red is missing decision coverage.

You can see more information on missing coverage for each model element using the Coverage Details pane.

You can click on a model element to view coverage details for that element. Here are more details on the coverage results for the PI Controller block. You can also see which simulations achieved specific coverage objectives.

You can justify missing coverage to let you focus on the design elements that you currently intend to test.

You can also view coverage results for Stateflow state charts and MATLAB function blocks used in your Simulink models.

Simulink Coverage lets you measure coverage for code generated from Simulink models or code within a model. For example, after running in software-in-the-loop mode, you can see coverage results for generated code associated with each element in your model

You can use Simulink Coverage with other verification tools like Simulink Test, Simulink Design Verifier, and Simulink Requirements to check for unintended behavior, incomplete tests, and incorrect traceability.

Once done, you can generate an html report that can be shared with colleagues.

Simulink Coverage helps you find gaps in your testing, missing requirements, or unintended functionality in your Simulink models, Stateflow state charts, MATLAB function blocks, and generated code.

For more information, please visit the Simulink Coverage product page on mathworks.com and download a trial to check out the reference examples.