From Model‐based to Model and Simulation‐based Systems Architectures – achieving quality engineering through descriptive and analytical models

Aircraft development is a protracted process over many years. Novel concept aircraft with new energy sources and disruptive systems technologies are investigated during the aircraft conceptual design phase with the goal to achieve sustainable aviation. Current development cycles need to be accelerated to reduce time to market and development costs of novel aircraft, while still handling complexity and uncertainty of systems technologies. Therefore, a holistic framework for knowledge‐based systems architecting using a model‐based systems engineering approach is presented. This framework has the purpose to conserve and provide knowledge, i.e., information, data, and experiences about existing systems architectures, to the engineer. The developed framework consists of a database concept, a method for model‐based systems architecting, and an interface to the overall systems design software tool GeneSys. Based on evaluating different modeling languages and tools, MathWorks System Composer is selected as most suitable tool for knowledge‐based systems architecting. The developed framework is then demonstrated by conserving and reusing formalized knowledge for the design of a novel hydrogen‐powered concept aircraft. On‐board systems architecture models are saved in a database and automatically recreated reducing development time. The complete graphical representation could not yet be stored in a formalized manner partly reducing the advantage of a clear representation of model‐based systems architecting. However, this did not reduce automatic recreation and evaluation capabilities.

Model‐based Framework for Data and Knowledge‐Driven Systems Architecting Demonstrated on a Hydrogen‐Powered Concept Aircraft

Kuelper,

Bielsky,

Broehan

et al. 2023

Applying a System of Systems Perspective to Hyundai‐Kia's Virtual Tire Development

Yun,

Alai,

Kim

et al. 2023

Systems engineering has become important in almost every complex product manufacturing industry, especially automotive. Emerging trends like vehicle electrification and autonomous driving now pose a System of Systems (SoS) engineering challenge to automotive OEMs. This paper presents a proof‐of‐concept (PoC) that applies a top‐down SoS perspective to Hyundai‐Kia Motor Corporation's (HKMC) virtual product development process to develop a performance‐critical component of the vehicle, the tire. The PoC demonstrates using the Arcadia MBSE method to develop a consistent, layered, vehicle architecture model starting from the SoS operational context down to the lowest level of system decomposition in the physical architecture thereby capturing top‐down knowledge traceability. Using the concept of functional chains, several vehicle performance views are captured that serve as the basis for architecture verification orchestration across engineering domains using a cross‐domain orchestration platform thereby validating key vehicle/tire performance metrics that influence the tire design parameters. Preliminary results of the study show that applying a method‐based modeling approach could provide several benefits to HKMC's current product development approach such as reduced time to model, SoS knowledge capture and reusability, parameter/requirement traceability, early performance verification, and effective systems engineering collaboration between the OEM, tire design supplier and tire manufacturers.

Seamless Transitions from Logical to Physical Avionics Architecture Models for Preliminary Aircraft Systems Design

Broehan,

Kuelper,

Thielecke

2023

The transition of federated aviation electronics (avionics) systems to Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA) concepts leads to a higher integration of functions, which reduces the amount of equipment and therefore system mass. However, these benefits are accompanied by a strong increase in system complexity and more interdependencies. Moreover, further digitalization and automation of aircraft functions lead to a higher impact of avionics in terms of equipment number and energy consumption. One challenge arises from the fact that the IMA platform design starts in parallel to the design of other aircraft on‐board systems, for which the platform shall provide resources like computing power. This leads to a high uncertainty during early design phases on the one hand and to a complex design process including many data and tool interfaces on the other hand. In order to meet these challenges, seamless model‐based design approaches are being broadly investigated. For this purpose, standardized and automated interfaces between different design steps, tools, and stakeholders are needed. In this work, a formalized avionics architecture design process is proposed to support a seamless model‐based tool chain from systems architecting to detailed system design. Methods to handle uncertainties, to provide standardized model interfaces, and to automate transitions between model abstraction levels are included. Overall, this reduces manual effort and the introduction of errors that would lead to high costs during system implementation.