A Modelling Framework to Design Executable Logical Architecture of Engineering Systems

Abstract

Modern production, logistic and assembly systems comprise of a considerable number of processes which operate by using diverse types of resources. Conceptual design of these systems has become more complicated because of the large scale and multi-disciplinary essence of their design knowledge. This paper proposes a modelling framework to support the conceptual design of such systems. The framework employs the principles of system engineering to fulfil the necessity of having a multi-disciplinary approach for the design of such systems. The framework realizes the essence of holistic design by modelling the structural and behavioral aspects of a system in one design artefact. Object Oriented (OO) method is employed to facilitate the complexity of holistic analysis and yielding proper logics for system architecting. This paper proposes incorporating the OO analyzing semantics into Finite State Machine formalism. Therefore, the logical architecture will be established in an FSM platform. In return, the resultant artefact can stand as an executable Meta-Architecture such that design alternatives are its instances. Moreover, the Meta-Architecture enables simulation of the alternatives which serve their early validation. Accordingly, this approach opens avenues regarding incorporation of the Meta- Architecture with computational and analyzing methods which can significantly support the decision making in the conceptual design stage.