System engineering approach applied to Galileo system

Developing a localization system, with more precise performances than GPS that guarantees Europe autonomy is a complex challenge that ESA and a large number of European economical actors of space industry were decided to meet. To design and manage such a huge system would have been impossible without applying System Engineering best practices, thanks to fundamental activities, multidisciplinary teams and dedicated tools. This paper gives an overview of the System Engineering approach applied to design and develop Galileo, the European Satellite Radio-Navigation System. Galileo system scope is so wide that we have decided to focus on some particular steps of the System Engineering processes that are: Requirements Engineering and Architec-ture. All along this paper, examples are given to illustrate the additional difficulties that have made Systems Engineering more and more complex

On Engineering The Ethical Requirements of Machine Learning

Machine Learning is disrupting the current requirement-engineering paradigm and ethics of information technology. This is because of its ethical issues, humanoid proficiencies, learning skills, autonomy, self-redesign capabilities, and mixed-up hardware and software. Prominent philosophers, ethicists, and machine scholars suggest charging them with certain principles such as fairness, transparency, accountability, efficiency, competence, and beneficence. We suggest a tentative framework that employs traditions of requirement engineering for engineering these ethical principles. It also suggests employing an ethics engineer with the development team to elicit, analyze, negotiate& specify, validate, manage, and maintain ethical requirements for autonomous machines

The Lived Experiences of Professional Engineers over the Life-Cycle of a Technological Device

One of the goals of this study was to pose the engineering role in a way that allows engineers to understand the impact that professional requirements have on their career. For engineers making medical devices, requirements come from three principal sources, professional engineering, regulatory agencies, and their own organization. Engineering requires an application of knowledge in technology, mathematics and science; and the application of gut judgment . When knowledge and judgment come together in their practice engineers achieve artistry . Regulatory requirements from FDA or ISO must be fulfilled. Finally, organizational requirements must also be met, for it is to the organization that engineers contract their labor to receive payment for their work. When fulfilling the requirements from all sources, engineers follow an honorable way of making a living, and importantly they get to enact on a regular basis, within their organization, the key points of what it is to be an engineer. This is how engineers gather a moral career , a term conceptualized and described by Ervin Goffman. Additionally, I used the term professional/reflective practice, as described by Donald Schön, to present the salient features of engineering. By posing the engineering profession in this manner, it will help engineers and future engineers make better decisions about their career. It is important to do their due diligence when contemplating working for an organization and ask about the life-cycle stage on those products they will be working with. Engineers should be allowed to use their judgement to make the difficult call on technical and science matters and it is important to understand the organization’s commitment to this. By having this knowledge, engineers learn how not to be a victim because in many organizations, engineers are often thrown to the dogs because they are untrained on how to think as the leaders of the organization do and become easy victims. This study also shows a direct connection between a product’s life-cycle stage and the conditions of the engineer’s practice. During the growth stage, great satisfaction and autonomy prevail. However, with product maturity and decline, dissatisfaction and a substantial curtailing of autonomy appeared

Space Astronomy for the mid-21st Century: Robotically Maintained Space Telescopes

The historical development of ground based astronomical telescopes leads us to expect that space-based astronomical telescopes will need to be operational for many decades. The exchange of scientific instruments in space will be a prerequisite for the long lasting scientific success of such missions. Operationally, the possibility to repair or replace key spacecraft components in space will be mandatory. We argue that these requirements can be fulfilled with robotic missions and see the development of the required engineering as the main challenge. Ground based operations, scientifically and technically, will require a low operational budget of the running costs. These can be achieved through enhanced autonomy of the spacecraft and mission independent concepts for the support of the software. This concept can be applied to areas where the mirror capabilities do not constrain the lifetime of the mission.Comment: 4 pages, accepted in February 2012 for publication in A

Correlation Effects of Gender and Entry Qualifications on the Performance of Undergraduate Engineering Students in Universities

Enrollment into engineering disciplines in tertiary institutions has always been identified for gender bias, higher population favoring the masculine. However, reports on the standard ratio of this bias nor the issue of whether it has any significant impact on academic performance of engineering students (POES) scarcely exist. Meanwhile, Nigerian Universities still enjoy autonomy and their admission policies on entry requirements vary. Hence, this study examined the possible influence of gender and entry qualification (EQ) on POES. Data collected from 491 undergraduate engineering students from two universities were statistically analyzed. The study revealed female to male population ratio of 1:9. The result of statistical analysis showed that EQ has a significant effect on POES (p0.05). Therefore, a more critical priority must be given to entry qualification and not the gender of the students intending to study engineering during admission and screening. However, female students need to be more encourage since they can competitively perform as their male counterpart in engineering lest the profession becomes a male affair

A Method to Define Requirements for System of Systems

The purpose of this research was to develop and apply a systems-based method for defining System of Systems (SoS) requirements using an inductive research design. Just as traditional Systems Engineering (TSE) includes a requirements definition phase, so too does System of Systems Engineering (SoSE); only with a wider, more over- arching, systemic perspective. TSE addresses the design and development of a single system with generally a very specific functional purpose enabled by any number of subcomponents. SoSE however, addresses the design and development of a large, complex system to meet a wide range of functional purposes enabled by any number of constituent systems, each of which may have its own individually-managed and funded TSE effort in execution. To date, the body of prescriptive guidance on how to define SoS requirements is extremely limited and nothing exists today that offers a methodological approach capable of being leveraged against real-world SoS problems. As a result, SoSE practitioners are left attempting to apply TSE techniques, methods, and tools to address requirements for the more complex problems of the SoS domain. This research addressed this gap in the systems body of knowledge by developing a method, grounded in systems principles and theory, that offers practitioners a systemic, flexible method for defining unifying and measurable SoS requirements. This provides element system managers and engineers a SoS focus to their efforts while still maximizing their autonomy to achieve system-level requirements. A rigorous mixed-method research methodology, employing inductive methods with a case application was used to develop and validate the SoS Requirements Definition Method. Two research questions provided the research focus: • How does the current body of knowledge inform the definition of a system theoretic construct to define SoS requirements? • What results from the demonstration of the candidate construct for SoS requirements definition? Using Discoverers \u27 Induction (Whewell, 1858), coupled with coding techniques from the grounded theory method (Glaser & Strauss, 1967), a systems-based method for defining SoS requirements was constructed and applied to a real-world SoS requirements definition case. The structured systemic method advances the SoSE field and shows significant promise for further development to support SoSE practitioners in the area of SoS requirements engineering

Looking for Reasons behind Success in Dealing with Requirements Change

During development, requirements of software systems are subject to change. Unfortunately, managing changing requirements can take a lot of time and effort. Yet some companies show a better management of changes in requirements than others. Why? What is it that makes some projects deal with changing requirements better than others? We pursue the long term goal of understanding the mechanisms used to successfully deal with change in requirements. In this paper we gather knowledge about the state-of-the-art and the state-of-practice. We studied eight software development projects in four different companies --large and small, inclined toward structured and toward agile principles of development--, interviewing their project managers and analyzing their answers. Our findings include a list of practical (rather than theoretical) factors affecting the ability to cope with small changes in requirements. Results suggest a central role of size as a factor determining the flexibility showed either by the organization or by the software development team. We report the research method used and validate our results via expert interviews, who could relate to our findings

Federated Embedded Systems – a review of the literature in related fields

This report is concerned with the vision of smart interconnected objects, a vision that has attracted much attention lately. In this paper, embedded, interconnected, open, and heterogeneous control systems are in focus, formally referred to as Federated Embedded Systems. To place FES into a context, a review of some related research directions is presented. This review includes such concepts as systems of systems, cyber-physical systems, ubiquitous computing, internet of things, and multi-agent systems. Interestingly, the reviewed fields seem to overlap with each other in an increasing number of ways

MISSION ENGINEERING METHODOLOGY FOR REALIZATION OF UNMANNED SURFACE VESSEL OPERATIONS

The Navy has included unmanned systems as a key enabler for the future fleet. Congress has mandated that the Navy (PMS 406) provide demonstrated testing and documentation sufficient to support transition of Unmanned Surface Vessels (USVs) from prototype to operational. Commercial USV certification examples only address safety of navigation and do not provide certification requirements for autonomy, nor do they consider the operational mission context or requirements for the USVs. No current methodology exists that decomposes the certification metrics and standards, including the complexity of the intended USV missions. Mission engineering (ME) provides the systems engineering rigor and methodology to ensure that the USV prototypes are evaluated in their intended missions. The mission objectives were captured in Design Reference Missions (DRMs). The DRMs provided the operational sequence of events for the USVs to accomplish their mission in support of commander's intent. The DRMs decomposed into mission essential tasks (METs). The METs were mapped to the critical systems performing the METs. This methodology can be further analyzed to produce the complete complement of certification requirements for PMS 406. Analysis revealed several gaps. The communications systems and the human-in-the-loop interaction with the USVs need to be reevaluated based upon the mission analysis.Civilian, Department of the NavyApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited