System Qualities Ontology, Tradespace and Affordability (SQOTA) Project – Phase 4

This task was proposed and established as a result of a pair of 2012 workshops sponsored by the DoD Engineered Resilient Systems technology priority area and by the SERC. The workshops focused on how best to strengthen DoD’s capabilities in dealing with its systems’ non-functional requirements, often also called system qualities, properties, levels of service, and –ilities. The term –ilities was often used during the workshops, and became the title of the resulting SERC research task: “ilities Tradespace and Affordability Project (iTAP).” As the project progressed, the term “ilities” often became a source of confusion, as in “Do your results include considerations of safety, security, resilience, etc., which don’t have “ility” in their names?” Also, as our ontology, methods, processes, and tools became of interest across the DoD and across international and standards communities, we found that the term “System Qualities” was most often used. As a result, we are changing the name of the project to “System Qualities Ontology, Tradespace, and Affordability (SQOTA).” Some of this year’s university reports still refer to the project as “iTAP.”This material is based upon work supported, in whole or in part, by the U.S. Department of Defense through the Office of the Assistant of Defense for Research and Engineering (ASD(R&E)) under Contract HQ0034-13-D-0004.This material is based upon work supported, in whole or in part, by the U.S. Department of Defense through the Office of the Assistant of Defense for Research and Engineering (ASD(R&E)) under Contract HQ0034-13-D-0004

A systematic approach to model-based engineering of cyber-physical systems of systems

PhD ThesisThis thesis describes and evaluates methods for the model-based engineering of Systems of Systems (SoSs) where constituents comprise both computational and physical elements typical of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs). Such Cyber-Physical Systems of Systems (CPSoSs) use sensors and actuators to link the digital and physical worlds, and are composed of operationally and managerially independent constituent systems that interact to deliver an emerging service on which reliance is placed. The engineering of CPSoSs requires a combination of techniques associated with both CPS engineering and SoS engineering. Model-based SoS engineering techniques address organisation and integration of diverse systems through the use of disciplined architectural frameworks and contractual modelling approaches. Advances in model-based CPS engineering address the additional challenges of integrating semantically heterogeneous models of discrete and continuous phenomena. This thesis combines these approaches to develop a coherent framework for the model-based engineering of CPSoSs. The proposed approach utilises architectural frameworks to aid in the development of rich abstract models of CPSoSs. This is accompanied by the specification of an automated transformation process to generate heterogeneous co-models based on the architectural description. Verification of the proposed engineering approach is undertaken by its application to a case study describing the control of trains over a section of rail network, in which the (cyber) behaviour of control infrastructure must be considered in conjunction with the (physical) dynamics of train movements. Using the proposed methods, the development of this CPSoS uses architectural descriptions to generate an executable model to enable the analysis of safety and efficiency implications of the implemented control logic. The utility of the approach is evaluated by consideration of the impact of the proposed techniques on advancing the suitability and maturity of baseline technologies for the engineering of CPSoS. It is concluded that the proposed architectural framework provides effective guidance for the production of rich architectural descriptions of CPSoSs, and that the conversion between architectural and executable models is viable for implementation in a suitable open tools framework

A Cooperative Architecting Procedure for Systems of Systems Based on Self-Adaptive Multi-Agent Systems

Depuis la seconde guerre mondiale, l’ingénierie des systèmes a permis le développement de méthodologies pour contrôler le développement de systèmes et de projets de plus en plus complexes. En 1990, la chute de l’URSS a provoqué un changement de doctrine militaire aux Etats-Unis en passant d’une confrontation bipolaire à une mondialisation des conflits comportant une grande variété de menaces. Sa nouvelle doctrine était de faire collaborer ses systèmes de défense existants pour produire un système de défense de haut niveau, décentralisé, adaptable et composé de systèmes indépendants. C’est l’apparition du concept de Système de Systèmes (SdS).Cette thèse de doctorat propose un nouveau modèle de SdS appelé SApHESIA (SoS ArchitectingHEuriStIc based on Agent), ainsi qu’une nouvelle méthodologie d’architecture. Cette nouvelle méthodologie est basée sur une coopération complète entre tous les composants du SdS, lui permettant d’évoluer de lui-même afin de faire face à des événements inattendus de son environnement tels que des menaces. Enfin, ce travail est testé à travers 4exemples issus de différents domaines (militaire, logistique et exploratoire).Since the World War II, researchers have tended to develop methodologies and tools tobuild and control the development of more and more complex systems and projects. Thisinter-disciplinary research area has been called Systems Engineering (SE) and continues tobe developed nowadays. In 1990, the fall of USSR led the US Department of Defense (DoD)to re-think its defense doctrine and to switch from a one opponent confrontation to a globalizationof conflicts with a huge variety of scenarios. Its idea was to re-use and join itsdefense systems by producing a huge, decentralized and adaptive defense system that iscomposed of existing and independents (complex) systems. This is the apparition of theSystem of Systems (SoS) concept. After 2000’s, this concept spreads in civil domains suchas crisis management or logistic systems. More precisely, a SoS is a complex system characterizedby the particular nature of its components: these latter, which are systems, tend tobe managerially and operationally independent as well as geographically distributed. Thisspecific characterization led to re-think research areas of classic SE such as definition, taxonomy,modeling, architecting and so on. SoS architecting focuses on the way independentcomponents of a SoS can be dynamically structured and can change autonomously theirinteractions in an efficient manner to fulfill the goal of the SoS and to cope with the highdynamics of the environment. This PhD thesis mainly focuses on two SoS research areas: 1)SoS modeling and 2) SoS architecting. To achieve the first point, we propose a new modelcalled SApHESIA (SoS Architecting HEuriStIc based on Agent). We have used set theoryand ABM (Agent-Based Model) paradigm to define this model that takes into account thecharacteristics of SoS. Secondly, we propose a new SoS architecting procedure based on theAdaptive Multi-Agent System (AMAS) approach that advocates full cooperation betweenall the components of the SoS through the concept of criticality. This criticality is a metricthat represents the distance between the current state of a component and its goals. In thisprocedure, the SoS architecture evolves over time to self-adapt to the dynamics of the environmentin which it is plunged, while taking into account the respective local goals of itscomponents. Finally we instantiate this model and this procedure through 4 examples fromdifferent domains (military, logistics and exploratory missions) and validate the feasibility,the efficiency, the effectiveness and the robustness of the SoS architecting procedure we havedeveloped and proposed

Development of an Integrated Interface Modelling Methodology to Support System Architecture Analysis

This thesis presents the development and validation of a novel interface modelling methodology integrated with a system architectural analysis framework that emphasises the need to manage the integrity of deriving and allocating requirements across multiple levels of abstraction in a structured manner. The state of the art review in this research shows that there is no shared or complete interface definition model that could integrate diverse interaction viewpoints for defining system requirements with complete information. Furthermore, while existing system modelling approaches define system architecture with functions and their allocation to subsystems to meet system requirements, they do not robustly address the importance of considering well-defined interfaces in an integrated manner at each level of systems hierarchy. This results in decomposition and integration issues across the multiple levels of systems hierarchy. Therefore, this thesis develops and validates following: -Interface Analysis Template as a systematic tool that integrates diverse interaction viewpoints for modelling system interfaces with intensive information for deriving requirements. -Coupling Matrix as an architecture analysis framework that not only allocates functions to subsystems to meet requirements but also promotes consistent consideration of well-defined interfaces at each level of design hierarchy. Insights from the validation of developed approach with engineering case studies within an automotive OEM are discussed, reflecting on the effectiveness, efficiency and usability of the methods

Model driven validation approach for enterprise architecture and motivation extensions

As the endorsement of Enterprise Architecture (EA) modelling continues to grow in diversity and complexity, management of its schema, artefacts, semantics and relationships has become an important business concern. To maintain agility and flexibility within competitive markets, organizations have also been compelled to explore ways of adjusting proactively to innovations, changes and complex events also by use of EA concepts to model business processes and strategies. Thus the need to ensure appropriate validation of EA taxonomies has been considered severally as an essential requirement for these processes in order to exert business motivation; relate information systems to technological infrastructure. However, since many taxonomies deployed today use widespread and disparate modelling methodologies, the possibility to adopt a generic validation approach remains a challenge. The proliferation of EA methodologies and perspectives has also led to intricacies in the formalization and validation of EA constructs as models often times have variant schematic interpretations. Thus, disparate implementations and inconsistent simulation of alignment between business architectures and heterogeneous application systems is common within the EA domain (Jonkers et al., 2003). In this research, the Model Driven Validation Approach (MDVA) is introduced. MDVA allows modelling of EA with validation attributes, formalization of the validation concepts and transformation of model artefacts to ontologies. The transformation simplifies querying based on motivation and constraints. As the extended methodology is grounded on the semiotics of existing tools, validation is executed using ubiquitous query language. The major contributions of this work are the extension of a metamodel of Business Layer of an EAF with Validation Element and the development of EAF model to ontology transformation Approach. With this innovation, domain-driven design and object-oriented analysis concepts are applied to achieve EAF model’s validation using ontology querying methodology. Additionally, the MDVA facilitates the traceability of EA artefacts using ontology graph patterns

MH-60 Seahawk / MQ-8 Fire Scout interoperability

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimitedAs part of a Naval Postgraduate School's capstone project in Systems Engineering, a project team from Cohort 311-0911 performed a Systems Engineering analysis. This Project focused on defining alternatives for enhanced Anti-Surface Warfare (ASUW) mission effectiveness through increased interoperability and integration for the Fire Scout Unmanned Air Vehicle and Seahawk helicopter. Specifically, the Project explored the available trade space for enhancing communications back to the ship for analysis and decision-making. Modeling and Simulation (MandS) was used to assess the impact of enhanced communication on specific Key performance Parameters (KPPs) and Measures of Effectiveness (MOEs) associated with the ASUW mission. Once the trade space was defined, alternatives were analyzed and a recommendation provided that supports near-, mid-, and long-term mission enhancement