Automated testing in software engineering: using ant colony and self-regulated swarms

In this paper, we propose a new approach of software error trace and model checking, incorporating ant colony based agents and self regulated swarms. The automated testing already becomes popular to identify difference of program states in a given piece of source code and thus we focus particularly in the transition of program states, which is effectively monitored by pheromone deposition by these ants and swarms. Finally, an algorithm is developed and implemented contemplating this idea of automated software test and model checking. The advantage of this proposal is to generate multiple error trace having independent root cause, easily traced by labeled path in control dependence graph evolved from the program to be tested. The pheromone distribution of ant and swarms, in the different proportion across this graph signal the error trace in caller and callee function if they mismatch in the program and could display the pheromone value of the path where software error has been localized (root cause). The results are also presented on this new approach of software testing.