Automated testing for intelligent agent systems

Abstract. This paper describes an approach to unit testing of plan based agent systems, with a focus on automated generation and execution of test cases. Design artefacts, supplemented with some additional data, provide the basis for specifica-tion of a comprehensive suite of test cases. Correctness of execution is evaluated against a design model, and a comprehensive report of errors and warnings is pro-vided to the user. Given that it is impossible to design test suites which execute all possible traces of an agent program, it is extremely important to thoroughly test all units in as wide a variety of situations as possible to ensure acceptable behaviour. We provide details of the information required in design models or related data to enable the automated generation and execution of test cases. We also briefly describe the implemented tool which realises this approach.