A system is disclosed for real-time supervision of engine test beds independent of the engine test bed. This supervision system comprises a file describing equipments and drivers associated with engine test beds, and a set of software drivers for controlling engine test bed equipments. These drivers are independent of the software operating environment and of the computer platform of the system. This system also comprises a real-time supervision software for reading the information from the description file and loading the required drivers so that test configurations can be carried out in real time. These configurations come from a test configuration editor specific to the system and are independent of the engine test bed. An application of the invention is for studying of thermal engines or electric motors on test beds.