Generating target system specifications from a domain model using CLIPS

The quest for reuse in software engineering is still being pursued and researchers are actively investigating the domain modeling approach to software construction. There are several domain modeling efforts reported in the literature and they all agree that the components that are generated from domain modeling are more conducive to reuse. Once a domain model is created, several target systems can be generated by tailoring the domain model or by evolving the domain model and then tailoring it according to the specified requirements. This paper presents the Evolutionary Domain Life Cycle (EDLC) paradigm in which a domain model is created using multiple views, namely, aggregation hierarchy, generalization/specialization hierarchies, object communication diagrams and state transition diagrams. The architecture of the Knowledge Based Requirements Elicitation Tool (KBRET) which is used to generate target system specifications is also presented. The preliminary version of KBRET is implemented in the C Language Integrated Production System (CLIPS)

Development and Launch of the World\u27s First Orbital Propellant Tanker

This paper describes the development of Orbit Fab’s Tanker-001 Tenzing mission, the world’s first orbital propellant tanker. The development of a robust orbital propellant supply chain is critical to accelerating the growth of government and commercial space activities. The widespread availability of spacecraft refueling has the potential to provide a number of revolutionary benefits. High-value space assets could have their operational lives extended, as they would no longer be constrained by the amount of propellant stored onboard for maneuvering. On-orbit servicing missions would become more efficient, as servicing vehicles could be refueled and repeatedly used. A large orbital propellant supply would also enable new mission and business models based on operational flexibility and frequent maneuvering. These benefits would be particularly impactful on small satellites, where the ability to refuel could overcome the operational constraints of having smaller propellant tanks. This will greatly expand the market for small spacecraft as it increases their range of missions and capabilities. Launching no earlier than June 24, 2021, Tenzing is a 35 kg small satellite with an Astro Digital bus carrying a supply of storable propellant, high test peroxide (HTP). Tenzing’s propellant supply is being offered to customers for refueling and used to gather data on propellant storage. In addition to being the first propellant tanker, Tenzing is also an orbital laboratory including a variety of payloads intended to test key technologies for refueling. This includes the first flight of Orbit Fab’s Rapidly Attachable Fluid Transfer Interface (RAFTI), a stereo camera system, and a Halcyon HTP propulsion system designed and built by Benchmark Space Systems for orbital maneuvers. The latter two elements can be used to test rendezvous and flyby maneuvers, providing data to support the development of full rendezvous, proximity operations, and docking (RPOD) systems for future Orbit Fab missions

Spacecraft Avionics Software Development Then and Now: Different but the Same

NASA has always been in the business of balancing new technologies and techniques to achieve human space travel objectives. NASA s historic Software Production Facility (SPF) was developed to serve complex avionics software solutions during an era dominated by mainframes, tape drives, and lower level programming languages. These systems have proven themselves resilient enough to serve the Shuttle Orbiter Avionics life cycle for decades. The SPF and its predecessor the Software Development Lab (SDL) at NASA s Johnson Space Center (JSC) hosted flight software (FSW) engineering, development, simulation, and test. It was active from the beginning of Shuttle Orbiter development in 1972 through the end of the shuttle program in the summer of 2011 almost 40 years. NASA s Kedalion engineering analysis lab is on the forefront of validating and using many contemporary avionics HW/SW development and integration techniques, which represent new paradigms to NASA s heritage culture in avionics software engineering. Kedalion has validated many of the Orion project s HW/SW engineering techniques borrowed from the adjacent commercial aircraft avionics environment, inserting new techniques and skills into the Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) Orion program. Using contemporary agile techniques, COTS products, early rapid prototyping, in-house expertise and tools, and customer collaboration, NASA has adopted a cost effective paradigm that is currently serving Orion effectively. This paper will explore and contrast differences in technology employed over the years of NASA s space program, due largely to technological advances in hardware and software systems, while acknowledging that the basic software engineering and integration paradigms share many similarities

Feasibility study of an Integrated Program for Aerospace-vehicle Design (IPAD) system. Volume 1: Summary

An overview is provided of the Ipad System, including its goals and objectives, organization, capabilities and future usefulness. The systems implementation is also presented with operational cost summaries

Convertibility Evaluation of Automated Assembly System Designs for High Variety Production

The recent advancements in technology and the high volatility in automotive market compel industries to design their production systems to offer the required product variety. Although, paradigms such as reconfigurable modular designs, changeable manufacturing, holonic and agent based systems are widely discussed to satisfy the need for product variety management, it is essential to practically assess the initial design at a finer level of granularity, so that those designs deemed to lack necessary features can be flagged and optimised. In this research, convertibility expresses the ability of a system to change to accommodate product variety. The objective of this research is to evaluate the system design and quantify its responsiveness to change for product variety. To achieve this, automated assembly systems are decomposed into their constituent components followed by an evaluation of their contribution to the system's ability to change. In a similar manner, the system layout is analysed and the measures are expressed as a function of the layout and equipment convertibility. The results emphasize the issues with the considered layout configuration and system equipment. The proposed approach is demonstrated through the conceptual design of battery module assembly system, and the benefits of the model are elucidated

Convertibility Evaluation of Automated Assembly System Designs for High Variety Production

© 2017 The Authors. The recent advancements in technology and the high volatility in automotive market compel industries to design their production systems to offer the required product variety. Although, paradigms such as reconfigurable modular designs, changeable manufacturing, holonic and agent based systems are widely discussed to satisfy the need for product variety management, it is essential to practically assess the initial design at a finer level of granularity, so that those designs deemed to lack necessary features can be flagged and optimised. In this research, convertibility expresses the ability of a system to change to accommodate product variety. The objective of this research is to evaluate the system design and quantify its responsiveness to change for product variety. To achieve this, automated assembly systems are decomposed into their constituent components followed by an evaluation of their contribution to the system's ability to change. In a similar manner, the system layout is analysed and the measures are expressed as a function of the layout and equipment convertibility. The results emphasize the issues with the considered layout configuration and system equipment. The proposed approach is demonstrated through the conceptual design of battery module assembly system, and the benefits of the model are elucidated

Systems building in architecture

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1983.MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCHIncludes bibliographical references.This work is an inquiry into the interventions of the systems design in the whole building process. At the beginning, three approaches which represent different points of view of interventions in production and use are exposed and compared to each other, and one of them serves as the theoretical background of this thesis. It is accepted that interventions in both production and use aspects of the whole building process might be capable of producing valuable solutions, as this notion is determined in the first chapter. Interventions in the production aspect are looked upon as influencing the relations among physical elements and as depending on the process of production which is followed. Here the interest (i.e., producer, designer, client or user) , which determines the process of building production, is of importance. The process of production certainly affects the performance of the building product after the building is occupied, and all factors influencing the building performance constitute the use aspect of the whole building process. Changes in the building process produce changes in the use aspect. Systems, which change the building process according to the needs of both the production and use, are considered as intervening in both the production and the use aspect of the whole building process. Finally, traditional, self-evolving methods and principles of building production are looked upon as constituting systems, which are not designed by anybody and serve the needs of both production and use, but substantially differ from the designed building systems. Such differences will be exposed in the last part of my thesis.by Charilaos Panayotis Tzannetakis.M.S