Patent ID: 7844350

Claim:
A method of testing a control strategy in a control system, wherein said control strategy contains a set of functional blocks having a plurality of variables and an output variable, said set of functional blocks being designed to generate output values for said output variable from input values received for said plurality of variables according to a control approach, said method comprising: receiving from a file a set of input values for a test case, wherein each of said set of input values is specified to be provided for a corresponding one of said plurality of variables, wherein said receiving further receives from said file an expected output value for said output variable; providing to said set of functional blocks said set of input values as values corresponding to said plurality of variables, wherein said set of functional blocks generates an actual output value for said output variable according to said control approach; obtaining said actual output value from said set of functional blocks; comparing said expected output value with said actual output value to generate a result of said testing of said set of functional blocks for said set of input values of said test case; wherein said file contains an instruction, wherein said providing sends said instruction to said control system and receives a state of said control strategy in response, storing said actual output value and said result in said file and said state in a memory, wherein said file contains a restore instruction; and retrieving said state from said memory, and loading said state to said control strategy in response to said restore instruction to cause said set of functional blocks to a same state as prior to sending said instruction to said control system; wherein said receiving receives from said file a wait value associated with said output variable, wherein said obtaining waits a time duration determined by said wait value prior to retrieving said output value for said output variable.