Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) has encouraged the use of a single systems model in languages such as SysML that fully specify the system and which form the basis of all development effort. However, using SysML models for safety analysis has been restricted by the lack of defined modelling standards for analytical techniques like Fault Tree Analysis (FTA). In lieu of such standards, the ENCASE project has formulated a simple SysML profile that captures the information required to represent fault trees and which enables the linkage of failure modes to other parts of the SysML model. Unlike traditional fault trees that can be difficult to validate against a system design, associating failure modes with system functions and hardware components means that consistency checks between the two models are possible, and changes to the SysML design are easier to identify against the corresponding fault tree model. Common definitions of the system specification improves the quality of both safety analysis and assurance, and the alignment of the two models enables us to make the first steps towards the automatic translation of parts of the system design into fault trees.
While the majority of research on Model-Based Software Engineering revolves around open-source modelling frameworks such as the Eclipse Modelling Framework, the use of commercial and closed-source modelling tools such as RSA, Rhapsody, MagicDraw and Enterprise Architect appears to be the norm in industry at present. This technical gap can prohibit industrial users from reaping the benefits of state-of-the-art research-based tools in their practice. In this paper, we discuss an attempt to bridge a proprietary UML modelling tool (PTC Integrity Modeller), which is used for model-based development of safetycritical systems at Rolls-Royce, with an open-source family of languages for automated model management (Epsilon). We present the architecture of our solution, the challenges we encountered in developing it, and a performance comparison against the tool's built-in scripting interface. In addition, we use the bridge in a real-world industrial case study that involves the coordination with other bridges between proprietary tools and Epsilon.Keywords Model-driven engineering · Model management · Open-source Communicated by Mr. Vinay Kulkarni. B Athanasios Zolotas
Additional Information:• it proposes a mechanism for the evolution of variability; 3. stakeholders' specifications for variable requirements are extended by the proposed approach; 4. it increases the consistency of system models by directly using SysML Activity Diagrams and Block Definition Diagrams as a base model for refining variability models for requirement representation. The proposed method is illustrated by an Aircraft Engine Control System case study.
Software Product Line Engineering has attracted attention in the last two decades due to its promising capabilities to reduce costs and time to market through reuse of requirements and components. In practice, developing system level product lines in a large-scale company is not an easy task as there may be thousands of variants and multiple disciplines involved. The manual reuse of legacy system models at domain engineering to build reusable system libraries and configurations of variants to derive target products can be infeasible. To tackle this challenge, a Product Line Systems Engineering process is proposed. Specifically, the process extends research in the System Orthogonal Variability Model to support hierarchical variability modeling with formal definitions; utilizes Systems Engineering concepts and legacy system models to build the hierarchy for the variability model and to identify essential relations between variants; and finally, analyzes the identified relations to reduce the number of variation points. The process, which is automated by computational algorithms, is demonstrated through an illustrative example on generalized Rolls-Royce aircraft engine control systems. To evaluate the effectiveness of the process in the reduction of variation points, it is further applied to case studies in different engineering domains at different levels of complexity. Subject to system model availability, reduction of 14% to 40% in the number of variation points are demonstrated in the case studies.
Architecture Definition, which is central to system design, is one of the two most used technical processes in the practice of model-based systems engineering. In this paper a fundamental approach to architecture definition is presented and demonstrated. The success of its application to engineering problems depends on a precise but practical definition of the term architecture. In the standard for Architecture Description, ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010:2011, a definition was adopted that has been subsumed into later standards. In 2018 the working group JTC1/SC7/WG42 on System Architecture began a review of the standard, holding sessions late in the year. This paper extends and complements a position paper submitted during the meetings; in which Tarski model theory in conjunction with ISO/IEC 24707:2018 (logic-based languages) was used to better understand relationships between system models and concepts related to architecture. Definitions of architecture and system are now offered independent of the working group that have a mathematical foundation but are stated in simple intuitive terms. The nature of the definitions supports a fundamental expression of architecture definition that can be applied throughout the system lifecycle. The engineering utility and benefits to complex system design are demonstrated in a diesel engine emissions reduction case study.INDEX TERMS Architecture, system, definition process, Model Theory, Category Theory, diesel emissions
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