Collaborative Architecture supporting the next generation of MDAO within the AGILE paradigm

Abstract

The AGILE project has developed the next generation of aircraft Multidisciplinary Design and Optimization processes providing significant reductions in aircraft development costs and time to market - ultimately leading to more cost-effective and greener aircraft solutions. A novel product development methodology is formulated, enabling collaborative, large scale design and optimization processes. The main elements enabling the developed “AGILE Paradigm” are the Knowledge Architecture and the Collaborative Architecture. The Knowledge Architecture formalizes setting up the product development process. It guides the engineers in formulating the design problem and choosing the appropriate solution strategy. This paper focuses on the Collaborative Architecture, which at its turn formalizes the way in which the involved agents interact within the product development process and enables cross-organizational and cross-the-nation integration of design competences. The principles of the architecture are of a non-intrusive nature and allow legacy processes to be connected in fully automated cross-organization collaborative design workflows. Within the project, it is used to seamlessly integrate the capabilities of nineteen project partners located in nine different countries. A realistic aircraft design use case – addressing an automated systems-of-systems analysis involving the design competences of multiple project partners – demonstrates a working implementation of the Collaborative Architecture. The effective interconnection of simulation capabilities between organizations allows the agents to spend more time on creative, knowledge-intensive design tasks - opening new possibilities for collaboratively resolving the future challenges faced by the aerospace and other industries.