Model-Based Systems Engineering Approach Research Articles

Implementing the model-based systems engineering (MBSE) approach to develop an assessment framework for healthcare facility design

AbstractThe global elderly population rises, increasing dementia cases. Built environment impact on dementia health outcomes is known, forming the basis for evidence-based design studies. There's a need for a comprehensive assessment framework due to the complexity of interactions among Architectural Variables (AVs) and Health and Care Outcomes (HCOs). This paper proposes using Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) to create such a framework. It collects data from 105 studies on 40 AVs, 36 HCOs, and 396 interactions. MBSE offers a holistic understanding, aiding healthcare facility design decisions.

A semantic model-based systems engineering approach for assessing the operational performance of metal forming process

Metal Forming is a basic and essential industrial process to provide materials for constructing complex products. To design an efficient metal forming process, the functional requirements and operational performance are two important aspects to be considered. In this paper, a semantic Model-based Systems Engineering (sMBSE) approach is proposed to support the design of the entire metal forming process. A multi-architecture modeling language KARMA is used to develop meta-models and architecture models of the metal forming process from the perspectives of mission, operation, function, logic flow and physical structure. Enabled by customized software, the KARMA models are transformed to ontology models, which are then converted to Petri Net (PN) models. Simulations are conducted based on the PN models to evaluate the operational performance of the created processes. A case study based on a real metal forming scenario is conducted to evaluate the proposed approach using quantitative and qualitative analysis. The result proves that the proposed approach enables to formalize the entire architecture modeling for metal forming process; and to provide an efficient approach for evaluating the operational performance of the designed solution for initial verification.

Co-Design and Energy Management for Future Vessels

The maritime industry is undergoing a significant shift towards more sustainable and efficient forms of transportation. As a result, designing Power, Propulsion and Energy (PPE) Systems for future vessels presents new challenges that require a systematic approach that reduces the risk in development and implementation. This paper focuses on three aspects of such a systematic approach: Model-Based System Engineering (MBSE), Co-design, and Verification and Validation. The MBSE approach can be used to mitigate the risks associated with the transition by maintaining a clear traceability of user needs, functional requirements and physical realizations. A rigorous needs analysis and functional design reduces the optimisation design space that results in a significant reduction in the complexity of a design optimisation problem. Further, co-design is discussed as a methodology for a combined optimisation of the hardware and software design where the Modular Energy Management approach supports automated controller generation for the optimisation, a key challenge when optimising PPE systems. An important aspect of the MBSE approach is the use of models for the verification and validation of the developed designs. However, the successful use of models is contingent on their applicability. This paper proposes a way to categorise model confidence for verification and validation studies.

Model-Based Systems Engineering Approach to Design a Human Settlement to Better Serve Displaced People

Model-Based Systems Engineering Approach to Design a Human Settlement to Better Serve Displaced People

Operation Principles of the Industrial Facility Infrastructures Using Building Information Modeling (BIM) Technology in Conjunction with Model-Based System Engineering (MBSE)

The current industrial facility market necessitates the digitization of both production and infrastructure to ensure compatibility. This digitization is presently accomplished using Building Information Modeling and digital twin technologies, as well as their integrated usage, which enhances convergence and adds further value to facility assets. However, these technologies primarily focus on the physical components of industrial facilities, neglecting processes, requirements, and functions. To address these gaps, the inclusion of the Model-Based System Engineering approach, a proven benchmark in systems engineering, is essential. This inclusion is the main objective of this research. This article outlines methods and principles for integrating Model-Based System Engineering into the informational modeling of existing industrial facilities to address current market gaps. It offers practical steps for such integration and compares it to other methods, positioning Model-Based System Engineering as a pivotal tool for enhancing the value of industrial facility digital assets. The main findings include the proposal of BIM and MBSE integration, which aims to create a competitive advantage for industrial facilities by improving customer service and operational efficiency, requiring collaboration from various stakeholders.

Architecting a Digital Twin-Based Predictive Maintenance System for Modelling Cable Joint Degradation

The large scale adoption of wind turbines and solar panels in the Netherlands places new demands on the medium voltage power grid. For example, highly varying loads can cause failures in certain cables. Cable joints are natural weak spots prone to faults due to varying currents, creating downtime challenges for public utility companies. Predictive maintenance (PdM) practices are necessary to minimize downtime for users. We present a Model-Based System Engineering approach using formal models and UML views to provide a scalable PdM design ontology for modeling cable joint degradation. We aim to monitor cable joint degradation from different manufacturers under varying conditions throughout the Netherlands in real-time using a Digital Twin (DT) approach. Our design provides high-resolution, real-time synchronization between the DT-based PdM system and the cable joints. The proposed architecture is scalable, robust, and flexible, and the software implementation is publicly available in an open-source repository.

An Overview of Safety and Security Analysis Frameworks for the Internet of Things

The rapid progress of the Internet of Things (IoT) has continued to offer humanity numerous benefits, including many security and safety-critical applications. However, unlocking the full potential of IoT applications, especially in high-consequence domains, requires the assurance that IoT devices will not constitute risk hazards to the users or the environment. To design safe, secure, and reliable IoT systems, numerous frameworks have been proposed to analyse the safety and security, among other properties. This paper reviews some of the prominent classical and model-based system engineering (MBSE) approaches for IoT systems’ safety and security analysis. The review established that most analysis frameworks are based on classical manual approaches, which independently evaluate the two properties. The manual frameworks tend to inherit the natural limitations of informal system modelling, such as human error, a cumbersome processes, time consumption, and a lack of support for reusability. Model-based approaches have been incorporated into the safety and security analysis process to simplify the analysis process and improve the system design’s efficiency and manageability. Conversely, the existing MBSE safety and security analysis approaches in the IoT environment are still in their infancy. The limited number of proposed MBSE approaches have only considered limited and simple scenarios, which are yet to adequately evaluate the complex interactions between the two properties in the IoT domain. The findings of this survey are that the existing methods have not adequately addressed the analysis of safety/security interdependencies, detailed cyber security quantification analysis, and the unified treatment of safety and security properties. The existing classical and MBSE frameworks’ limitations obviously create gaps for a meaningful assessment of IoT dependability. To address some of the gaps, we proposed a possible research direction for developing a novel MBSE approach for the IoT domain’s safety and security coanalysis framework.

Agile Methodology for the Standardization of Engineering Requirements Using Large Language Models

The increased complexity of modern systems is calling for an integrated and comprehensive approach to system design and development and, in particular, a shift toward Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) approaches for system design. The requirements that serve as the foundation for these intricate systems are still primarily expressed in Natural Language (NL), which can contain ambiguities and inconsistencies and suffer from a lack of structure that hinders their direct translation into models. The colossal developments in the field of Natural Language Processing (NLP), in general, and Large Language Models (LLMs), in particular, can serve as an enabler for the conversion of NL requirements into machine-readable requirements. Doing so is expected to facilitate their standardization and use in a model-based environment. This paper discusses a two-fold strategy for converting NL requirements into machine-readable requirements using language models. The first approach involves creating a requirements table by extracting information from free-form NL requirements. The second approach consists of an agile methodology that facilitates the identification of boilerplate templates for different types of requirements based on observed linguistic patterns. For this study, three different LLMs are utilized. Two of these models are fine-tuned versions of Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERTs), specifically, aeroBERT-NER and aeroBERT-Classifier, which are trained on annotated aerospace corpora. Another LLM, called flair/chunk-english, is utilized to identify sentence chunks present in NL requirements. All three language models are utilized together to achieve the standardization of requirements. The effectiveness of the methodologies is demonstrated through the semi-automated creation of boilerplates for requirements from Parts 23 and 25 of Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFRs).

From Requirements to Product: an MBSE Approach for the Digitalization of the Aircraft Design Process

AbstractDuring the aircraft conceptual design phase, many different design options need to be explored and compared in a short time frame. To speed up this process, efforts have been made in the past decades to digitalize parts of the design process, with a focus on the automation of the repetitive and non‐creative tasks inherent to the iterative design process. Whilst many of the newly developed methodologies focus on specific parts of the design process, a holistic model‐based design framework, incorporating the latest design technology developments, is lacking. To fill this gap, this paper presents the latest version of the Design and Engineering Engine (DEE) framework, originally proposed in the early 2000s and progressively matured through the experience of several international research collaborations. The DEE enables the setup and execution of Multidisciplinary Design Analysis and Optimization (MDAO) problems for aircraft (sub)systems, leveraging the automated, rule‐based modeling capabilities offered by Knowledge‐Based Engineering (KBE) and recent developments in the automatic formulation and integration of MDAO workflows. While the traditional MDAO process focuses on a given product architecture, the DEE allows also architectural design studies and makes use of Model‐Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) principles to address the whole design process, from requirements modeling up to the automatic verification of the requirements. In practice, the DEE provides a single conceptual framework or template from which specific design framework instances can be formulated and executed, according to the user's needs. This paper describes the DEE architecture and its implementation concepts. Furthermore, it demonstrates the application of the DEE template to four different scenarios, ranging from a simple requirement verification study, up to the simultaneous synthesis and optimization of an aircraft system and its production process, including multiple system architecture options.

PRELIMINARY DESIGN OF NON-LINEAR SYSTEMS BASED ON GLOBAL SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS AND MODELICA LANGUAGE

AbstractIn the last few years, the growing need of highly reliable and time-effective strategies to perform preliminary design of complex systems has led industries to adopt the Model Based System Engineering (MBSE) approach. In MBSE, systems are split into multiple sub-systems and the relevant physical phenomena are described via analytical or numerical models. When a significant number of design variables are to be considered, a smart approach to reduce the number of analyses to perform would be to make use of the Global Sensitivity Analysis (GSA) to higlight those variables that have a more significant influence on the system output. Moreover, an even more significant reduction of computational cost to perform the GSA can be achieved if the complex system modelled via the MBSE approach is exported under the Functional Mock-Up Interface (FMI) norm. In this context, this paper proposes an original approach to address the study of two constructive solutions of an acceleration measuring device typically used on airbags for which the use of a new solution characterized by a porous material is compared with a classical one.

The Application of Model-Based Systems Engineering to Rural Healthcare System Disaster Planning: A Scoping Review

Disasters and other emergency events have complex effects on human systems, particularly if the events are severe or prolonged. When these types of events happen in rural communities, the resources of the local public health, healthcare, and emergency response organizations can be quickly depleted or overwhelmed. Planning for emergencies can help to mitigate their impact. Model-based systems engineering (MBSE) methods, including computer simulations, can provide insight on how best to prepare for these events and to explore the effects of varying approaches and resource utilization. To best apply these methods for improving disaster management in rural settings, a synthesis of the current body of evidence in this field is needed. The objective of this scoping review was to provide a descriptive overview of the application of computer simulation based on MBSE approaches to disaster preparedness and response for rural healthcare systems. Six studies met inclusion criteria, and varied in terms of MBSE method used, healthcare setting, and disaster type and context considered. We identified a gap in the research regarding the application of MBSE approaches to support rural healthcare disaster preparedness planning efforts. Model-based systems engineering and systems thinking, therefore, represent novel methods for developing tools and computational simulations that could assist rural communities better prepare for disasters.

Cross-Industry Principles for Digital Representations of Complex Technical Systems in the Context of the MBSE Approach: A Review

This scientific article discusses the process of digital transformation of enterprises, analyzed as complex technical systems. Digital transformation is essential for businesses to remain competitive in the global marketplace. One of the effective tools for such a transformation is model-based systems engineering (MBSE). However, there is a gap in the practical application of knowledge regarding the uniform principles for the formation of a digital representation of complex technical systems, which limits the realization of the cross-industry potential of digital transformation in the economy. The motivation for this study is to identify common cross-industry principles for the formation of digital representations of complex technical systems that can lead companies to a sustainable and successful digital transformation. The purpose of this work is to identify and formulate these principles through an analysis of publications, using an inductive approach and classifying them by the category of application. As a result of the study, 23 principles were obtained, and the degree of their use in various industries associated with complex technical systems was determined. The results of this study will help to solve the problem of cross-industry integration and guide systemic changes in the organization of enterprises during their digital transformation.

Integration of SysML and Virtual Reality Environment: A Ground Based Telescope System Example

In recent years, Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) has continued to develop as a standard for designing, managing, and maintaining increasingly complex systems. Unlike the document centric approach, MBSE puts the model at the heart of system design. Among the various MBSE language development efforts, “Systems Modeling Language (SysML)”, is the most anticipated and broadly utilized in the research and in industrial practice. SysML originated from Unified Modeling Language (UML) and follows the Object-Oriented Systems Engineering Method (OOSEM). SysML diagrams help users create various systems engineering artifacts, including requirements, use cases, operational concepts, system architecture, system behaviors, and parametric analyses of a system model. In the early days of implementation, MBSE languages, including SysML, typically relied on static viewpoints and limited simulation support to depict and analyze a system model. Due the continuous improvement efforts and new implementation approaches by researchers and organizations, SysML has advanced vastly to encompass dynamic viewpoints, in-situ simulation and enable integration with external modeling and simulation (M&S) tools. Virtual Reality (VR) has emerged as a user interactive and immersive visualization technology and can depict reality in a virtual environment at different levels of fidelity. VR can play a crucial role in developing dynamic and interactive viewpoints to improve the MBSE approach. In this research paper, the authors developed and implemented a methodology for integrating SysML and VR, enabling tools to achieve three dimensional viewpoints, an immersive user experience and early design evaluations of the system of interest (SOI). The key components of the methodology being followed in this research paper are the SysML, a VR environment, extracted data and scripting languages. The authors initially developed a SysML for a ground-based telescope system following the four pillars of SysML: Structure, Requirements, Behavior and Parametrics. The SysML diagram components are exported from the model using the velocity template language and then fed into a virtual reality game engine. Then, the SysML diagrams are visualized in the VR environment to enable better comprehension and interaction with users and Digital Twin (DT) technologies. In addition, a VR simulation scenario of space objects is generated based on the input from the SysML, and the simulation result is sent back from the VR tool into the model with the aid of parametric diagram simulation. Hence, by utilizing the developed SysML-VR integration methodology, VR environment scenarios are successfully integrated with the SysML. Finally, the research paper mentions a few limitations of the current implementation and proposes future improvements.

Investigations on MBSE modelling and dynamic performance assessment of an electrical trimmable horizontal stabilizer actuator

With the development of power-by-wire technology for more electric aircraft, the electro-mechanical actuator (EMA) has the advantages to replace the conventional hydraulic servo actuator in some aerospace flight controls. Conventional hydraulically powered trimmable horizontal stabilizer actuation (THSA) system is nowadays developed to be electrically supplied. Given their safety-criticality, no-back mechanism and redundant load paths are utilized to meet the flight control requirements. However, rare literatures have introduced these functions and addressed the virtual prototyping activities from system-level point of view. This paper proposed such a model of a THSA system with dual electric power sources and fault-tolerant mechanical load paths. The nonlinear effects of components are considered with realism, and system-level simulation test is conducted to support the model-based system engineering (MBSE) approach. The models are developed with a power view instead of a pure signal view. Focusing on the friction effect and compliance effect with backlash or preload, some improved and novel approaches are adopted for these crucial components and validated via experimental results. Meanwhile, the implemented system-level model enables injection of crucial faults. Finally, the simulation of the proposed model shows that it is an efficient resource to investigate the actuator’s dynamic performance, to virtually prove that the actuator meets the fail/safe constraint, and to demonstrate the soundness of the fault monitoring functions.

An effective MBSE approach for constructing industrial robot digital twin system

Recently, the rapid development of digital twin (DT) technology has been regarded significant in Cyber-physical systems (CPS) promotion. Scholars are focusing on the theoretical architecture and implementing applications, in order to establish a high-fidelity, dynamic, and full-lifecycle DT model and achieve a deep fusion of real and virtual. As a typical complex system with multi-disciplines, multi-physics, and multi-domain characteristics, industrial robot (IR) involves various processes and elements from the two other levels of the system: components and production lines. Their complex relationships lead to a huge challenge to build a comprehensive DT model. Current researchers usually concentrates on single-layer services because of limited construction methodology, which results in enormous isolated models, and leads to low reusable system blocks, finite scalability, and high costs of design, adjustment, upgrade, and maintenance. To address these issues, a standardized methodology and a hierarchical, modular, and generic architecture are proposed to depict comprehensive and variable industrial robot digital twin (IRDT). Firstly, the ontology information model is presented by analyzing variable factors systematically. Then, model-based system engineering (MBSE) based methodology is introduced, including construction process and variants management. After modeling process of three levels (problem domain, solution main, and implementation domain) and four viewpoints (requirement, structure, behavior, and parameter), a generic architecture of IRDT is constructed and a feature-based variants management method is described. Besides, a six-axis IRDTS is implemented to illustrate the mapping of logical architecture and physical system as a multi-level elements and processes representation example. And the steps of numerical evaluations consist of system delay and derivation. Finally, results show the effectiveness and the potential of the proposed theoretical methodology for constructing IRDTS and other industrial applications.

Towards a Holistic and Functional Model-Based Design Method for Mechatronic Cyber-Physical Systems

AbstractEngineering cyber-physical systems (CPS) is complex and time-consuming due to the heterogeneity of the involved engineering domains and the high number of physical and logical interactions of their subsystems. Model-based systems engineering (MBSE) approaches tackle the complexity of developing CPS by formally and explicitly modeling subsystems and their interactions. Newer approaches also integrate domain-specific models and modeling languages to cover different aspects of CPS. However, MBSE approaches are currently not fully applicable for CPS development since they do not integrate formal models for physical and mechanical behavior to an extent that allows to seamlessly link mechanical models to the digital models and reuse them. In this paper, we discuss the challenges arising from the missing integration of physics into MBSE and introduce a model-based methodology capable of integrating physical functions and effects into an MBSE approach on a level where detailed physical effects are considered. Our approach offers a fully virtual, model-based development methodology covering the whole development process for the development of CPS. Evaluating this methodology on a real automotive use case demonstrates benefits regarding virtual development and functional testing of CPS. It shows potentials regarding automated development and continuous integration of the whole CPS including all domains. As an outlook of this paper, we discuss potential further research topics extending our development workflow.

SYSML4TA: A SysML Profile for Consistent Tolerance Analysis in a Manufacturing System Case Application

Tolerance analysis is a key engineering task that is usually supported by domain-specific analysis models and tools that are generally not connected to the system functionality. The model-based system engineering (MBSE) approach is a potential solution to this limitation, but it has not yet been deeply explored in this type of mechanical analysis, for which some problems need to be explored. One of these issues is the capacity of languages such as SysML to describe solution principles based on active surfaces that participate in functionality and are present for tolerance analysis. Thus, this study explored the possibilities that enable SysML to represent these geometries and their mathematical relationships based on Topologically and Technologically Related Surfaces (TTRS) theory and aligned with Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&T) standards. Additionally, the capacity of SysML to assure the consistency of tolerance analysis models is also explored, due to the limitations identified in analysis languages like Modelica. In this context, this paper presents a SysML profile for tolerance analysis modeling (SysML4TA), containing domain-specific semantics (concepts and constraints) to assure the completeness of the analysis models and consistency between the different models considered in the integrated model of the system. Finally, a case study applied to a manufacturing context is presented to validate the capacity of SysML to solve the identified problems.

AeroBERT-Classifier: Classification of Aerospace Requirements Using BERT

The system complexity that characterizes current systems warrants an integrated and comprehensive approach to system design and development. This need has brought about a paradigm shift towards Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) approaches to system design and a departure from traditional document-centric methods. While MBSE shows great promise, the ambiguities and inconsistencies present in Natural Language (NL) requirements hinder their conversion to models directly. The field of Natural Language Processing (NLP) has demonstrated great potential in facilitating the conversion of NL requirements into a semi-machine-readable format that enables their standardization and use in a model-based environment. A first step towards standardizing requirements consists of classifying them according to the type (design, functional, performance, etc.) they represent. To that end, a language model capable of classifying requirements needs to be fine-tuned on labeled aerospace requirements. This paper presents an open-source, annotated aerospace requirements corpus (the first of its kind) developed for the purpose of this effort that includes three types of requirements, namely design, functional, and performance requirements. This paper further describes the use of the aforementioned corpus to fine-tune BERT to obtain the aeroBERT-Classifier: a new language model for classifying aerospace requirements into design, functional, or performance requirements. Finally, this paper provides a comparison between aeroBERT-Classifier and other text classification models such as GPT-2, Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (Bi-LSTM), and bart-large-mnli. In particular, it shows the superior performance of aeroBERT-Classifier on classifying aerospace requirements over existing models, and this is despite the fact that the model was fine-tuned using a small labeled dataset.

Classification of function-oriented solution elements for MBSE

Many different engineering models are used in the development of technical systems such as the electro-mechanical drive train. The goal of utilising these models is to predict the physical behaviour of the system by virtually testing it. Already existing engineering models have to be identified and reused, to increase the efficiency of the development process. The model-based systems engineering (MBSE) approach motego [1, 2] supports the development of mechanical systems in a holistic and function-oriented manner. The system solution and the solution element are core elements in motego, that realise specific functions. The solution element contains the principle solution and domain models (e.g. engineering models), while the system solution contains solution elements and domain models. The system solution and especially the solution element provides a meaningful structure for organising and reusing models.However, in literature those solution elements are not identified and structured yet. This is also true for the electro-mechanical drive train, which is used as case for this study. It is assumed the solution elements can be identified by analysing the interaction between active surfaces of parts in contact. This contribution proposes a classification procedure for solution elements, which is based on elementary functions and principle solutions as they are elements of established development methods.

Reusable workflows for virtual testing of multidisciplinary products in system models

Developing increasingly complex multidisciplinary products in short development cycles is one major challenge in today’s product development. Model-based Systems Engineering (MBSE) approaches are well suited to address this challenge. With MBSE, products are virtually represented in central system models. For the efficient verification of customer requirements and to avoid exhaustive physical testing with prototypes, virtual domain models (e.g. FE-models) are integrated into the system model. To perform a virtual test, domain models need to be executed in a sequence, so-called workflows.Current workflows link several product system levels in one workflow and are often only valid for one specific system architecture. As the number of requirements and system complexity increases, these workflows become also more complex. The effort for creating new comprehensible workflows is currently high and the reusability cannot be ensured. To solve these deficits, a method for the systematic formalization of reusable workflows in system models as well as their structured integration is presented. Behavior diagrams in the modelling language SysML are used to control the execution order of the domain models of different purposes and fidelities. Modular sub-workflows are developed for each system level. These sub-workflows can be reused and combined modularly to form larger workflows. The approach shows a high potential to easily build and organize workflows in reusable libraries thereby supporting automated virtual testing in product development. To demonstrate the approach, workflows for bearing lifetime calculation and shaft fatigue testing of a wind turbine drive train as well as their integration into the SysML system model are presented.