Test Bed

Three components are used in the system configuration:

• User Interface,
• Test Harness,
• Cruise Control.

This allows the same User Interface and Test Harness components to be used with all four Cruise Control implementations. The image shows the components and connectors for the overall system.

User Interface is responsible for user interactions. Test Harness interprets user input and provides the proper environment for Cruise Control component (i.e. it provides the automobile simulation). Cruise Control transforms current conditions into a suggested throttle setting.

A suggested throttle setting was used to more closely model actual Cruise Control functionality. The Cruise Control component should not directly manipulate the automobile’s throttle for several reasons:

• the Cruise Control component should complement the basic automobile configuration and therefore not directly affect required functions,
• the driver of an automobile can manually apply more throttle than might be calculated by the Cruise Control component.

As the diagram indicates, a pipe and filter architecture was used to implement the test system. A filter architecture is appropriate because filters are independent processes which simulate the environment in which a Cruise Control system would operate.