Embedded Testing

Curated list of tools and resources for testing Embedded and Low-level software

Table of Contents

• Embedded Testing
  • Table of Contents
  • Books, blogs and training materials
  • Test Frameworks
    • Rust Test Frameworks
    • General Embedded Testing Frameworks
    • Mocking and Hardware Simulation
    • Embedded Integration & Continuous Integration (CI)
    • Static & Dynamic Analysis
    • Embedded-Specific Testing Techniques & Tools
    • Test Automation & Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL)
    • Examples & Reference Projects

Books, blogs and training materials

Test Frameworks

Rust Test Frameworks

• embedded-test – Rust test harness and runner for embedded devices
• defmt-test – Test harness that lets you write and run unit tests on your device as if using the built-in #[test] attribute.

General Embedded Testing Frameworks

• Ceedling/Unity – Popular C-based unit testing and build framework, great for small to medium-sized embedded projects.
• GoogleTest (gtest) – Widely used and highly customizable C++ testing framework, commonly adopted in embedded C++ projects.
• CppUTest – Flexible testing framework tailored specifically to embedded software, emphasizing memory safety and simplicity.
• Catch2 – Modern C++ testing framework known for ease of use and expressive assertions, lightweight enough for embedded targets.

Mocking and Hardware Simulation

• CMock – Generates mock objects automatically for C, ideal for testing interactions with hardware-dependent code.
• Fake Function Framework (FFF) – Lightweight, simple mocking framework for C-based embedded software.
• Renode – Powerful framework for hardware simulation and testing, allowing execution and debugging of embedded binaries without actual hardware.
• QEMU – Widely adopted open-source emulator, very useful for full-system simulation of embedded platforms during testing.
• embedded-hal-mock – Mocks for testing embedded-hal based drivers without hardware access.

Embedded Integration & Continuous Integration (CI)

• PlatformIO – Cross-platform build tool and package manager, ideal for automating builds and tests for embedded projects.
• Embench – Open-source benchmarking suite specifically targeting IoT-class embedded systems.
• Robot Framework – Generic acceptance-test automation framework, commonly used for higher-level integration and system tests.

Static & Dynamic Analysis

• Cppcheck – Popular static analysis tool specifically tailored for C and C++ codebases.
• Valgrind – Dynamic analysis tool useful for memory leak detection and error tracking.
• Clang Sanitizers – Effective runtime debugging tools for detecting memory safety errors in embedded C/C++ applications.

Embedded-Specific Testing Techniques & Tools

• Embedded Artistry's Embedded Testing Guides – Curated resources and examples for best practices in embedded software testing.
• Tracealyzer (Commercial with free tiers) – Real-time trace visualization for debugging and performance analysis of embedded systems.

Test Automation & Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL)

• Labgrid – Automation framework for hardware-in-the-loop testing, integrates smoothly with continuous integration.
• OpenHTF – Hardware testing framework from Google designed for automated manufacturing tests and HIL testing.
• OnMCU – CLI for remote MCU development, flashing, and testing on real hardware hosted on the OnMCU platform.
• SiliconRig – CLI, Python SDK, and GitHub Action for flashing and testing firmware on real boards (ESP32-S3, STM32, RP2350) hosted on the SiliconRig platform.

Examples & Reference Projects

• Nasa JPL's F Prime – NASA's open-source flight software framework, extensively tested and validated.
• LittlevGL – Embedded GUI library extensively using unit tests and automated integration testing.