SYSTEMES DE SYSTEMES : AUTONOMIE ET PROACTIVITE

International audienc

Managing large and complex systems with Omnispective Analysis and Reasoning

Development of newer and more sustainable systems requires a thorough understanding of the complex interactions in current systems. Therefore it is necessary to be able to switch between detailed knowledge of component systems and an overall appraisal of the entire system. Current efforts to develop ontologies capturing a "complete" and "universal" understanding of entire systems of systems often result in loss of depth and precision of knowledge contained in the participating systems. This further adds to the uncertainty and intractability in the management of the complex system. In addition, the absence of a single control and execution context makes it difficult to validate the system against desired intent and goals. All of these increase the likelihood of cost, effort and development time overruns in maintaining, enhancing, retiring and replacing systems. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to address these concerns by the application of Omnispective Analysis and Reasoning (OAR), an epistemic framework for managing intellectual concerns. By creating "localized ontologies" for capturing the ’silos’ of knowledge in component systems, we develop artifacts for only those concerns from the participating domains that are identified as relevant. These localized ontologies can unambiguously capture all relevant system artifacts with valuable information about their context of application within the system. With the OAR framework, we can analyze and manage large systems as an aggregation of all these localized ontologies with explicit specification of mutual interactions and influence at the concept, model and implementation levels. This omnispective outlook will not only enable better management of the system development lifecycle by taking into account details of individual subsystems and their interactions, but also facilitate validation and verification of the system. We illustrate this with an example from the Ubuntu software ecosystem.Systems Engineering Society of Australia, Southern Cross Chapter of the International Test & Evaluation Association, Asia Pacific Council on Systems Engineerin

Generic Business Model Types for Enterprise Mashup Intermediaries

The huge demand for situational and ad-hoc applications desired by the mass of business end users led to a new kind of Web applications, well-known as Enterprise Mashups. Users with no or limited programming skills are empowered to leverage in a collaborative manner existing Mashup components by combining and reusing company internal and external resources within minutes to new value added applications. Thereby, Enterprise Mashup environments interact as intermediaries to match the supply of providers and demand of consumers. By following the design science approach, we propose an interaction phase model artefact based on market transaction phases to structure required intermediary features. By means of five case studies, we demonstrate the application of the designed model and identify three generic business model types for Enterprise Mashups intermediaries (directory, broker, and marketplace). So far, intermediaries following a real marketplace business model don’t exist in context of Enterprise Mashups and require further research for this emerging paradigm

Interoperability of heterogeneous Systems of Systems: from requirements to a reference architecture

Interoperability stands as a critical hurdle in developing and overseeing distributed and collaborative systems. Thus, it becomes imperative to gain a deep comprehension of the primary obstacles hindering interoperability and the essential criteria that systems must satisfy to achieve it. In light of this objective, in the initial phase of this research, we conducted a survey questionnaire involving stakeholders and practitioners engaged in distributed and collaborative systems. This effort resulted in the identification of eight essential interoperability requirements, along with their corresponding challenges. Then, the second part of our study encompassed a critical review of the literature to assess the effectiveness of prevailing conceptual approaches and associated technologies in addressing the identified requirements. This analysis led to the identification of a set of components that promise to deliver the desired interoperability by addressing the requirements identified earlier. These elements subsequently form the foundation for the third part of our study, a reference architecture for interoperability-fostering frameworks that is proposed in this paper. The results of our research can significantly impact the software engineering of interoperable systems by introducing their fundamental requirements and the best practices to address them, but also by identifying the key elements of a framework facilitating interoperability in Systems of Systems

System importance measures: A new approach to resilient systems-of-systems

Resilience is the ability to withstand and recover rapidly from disruptions. While this attribute has been the focus of research in several fields, in the case of system-of-systems (SoSs), addressing resilience is particularly interesting and challenging. As infrastructure SoSs, such as power, transportation, and communication networks, grow in complexity and interconnectivity, measuring and improving the resilience of these SoSs is vital in terms of safety and providing uninterrupted services. ^ The characteristics of systems-of-systems make analysis and design of resilience challenging. However, these features also offer opportunities to make SoSs resilient using unconventional methods. In this research, we present a new approach to the process of resilience design. The core idea behind the proposed design process is a set of system importance measures (SIMs) that identify systems crucial to overall resilience. Using the results from the SIMs, we determine appropriate strategies from a list of design principles to improve SoS resilience. The main contribution of this research is the development of an aid to design that provides specific guidance on where and how resources need to be targeted. Based on the needs of an SoS, decision-makers can iterate through the design process to identify a set of practical and effective design improvements. ^ We use two case studies to demonstrate how the SIM-based design process can inform decision-making in the context of SoS resilience. The first case study focuses on a naval warfare SoS and describes how the resilience framework can leverage existing simulation models to support end-to-end design. We proceed through stages of the design approach using an agent-based model (ABM) that enables us to demonstrate how simulation tools and analytical models help determine the necessary inputs for the design process and, subsequently, inform decision-making regarding SoS resilience. ^ The second case study considers the urban transportation network in Boston. This case study focuses on interpreting the results of the resilience framework and on describing how they can be used to guide design choices in large infrastructure networks. We use different resilience maps to highlight the range of design-related information that can be obtained from the framework. ^ Specific advantages of the SIM-based resilience design include: (1) incorporates SoS- specific features within existing risk-based design processes - the SIMs determine the relative importance of different systems based on their impacts on SoS-level performance, and suggestions for resilience improvement draw from design options that leverage SoS- specific characteristics, such as the ability to adapt quickly (such as add new systems or re-task existing ones) and to provide partial recovery of performance in the aftermath of a disruption; (2) allows rapid understanding of different areas of concern within the SoS - the visual nature of the resilience map (a key outcome of the SIM analysis) provides a useful way to summarize the current resilience of the SoS as well as point to key systems of concern; and (3) provides a platform for multiple analysts and decision- makers to study, modify, discuss and documentoptions for SoS

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

Produktportfolio-übergreifendes Spezifizieren von Produktfunktionen der Sportwagenentwicklung im Modell der PGE – Produktgenerationsentwicklung = Product Portfolio-spanning Specifying of Product Functions within Sports Car Development in the Model of PGE – Product Generation Engineering

Das Funktionsspektrum heutiger Generationen hochentwickelter Fahrzeuge hat sich im letzten Jahrzehnt, aufgrund steigender Kunden- und Anwenderanforderungen u.a. an Fahrerassistenz, Digitalisierung und Elektromobilität, mehr als vervierfacht. Empirische Untersuchungen dieser Arbeit zeigen, dass der Fokus auf den für Kunden oder Anwender wahrnehmbaren Funktionen liegt, die einen direkt greifbaren Wert oder Nutzen des Gesamtproduktes schaffen. In der automobilen Entwicklungspraxis zeigt sich zudem, dass solche, mitunter komplexe, Funktionen nicht mehr nur für einzelne, automobile Produktgenerationen, sondern übergreifend für das gesamte Produktportfolio eines Anbieters entwickelt werden müssen. Produktentwickelnde stehen daher vor der Herausforderung, teils diametrale Anforderungen sowie Wechselwirkungen vielfältiger Produktgenerationen aus verschiedenartigen Produktlinien bereits beim Spezifizieren der Funktionen zu berücksichtigen. Da es an geeigneter prozessualer und methodischer Unterstützung fehlt, stellt sich die Frage, wie eine transparente und durchgängige Funktionsentwicklung in diversifizierten Produktportfolios zukünftig im Rahmen der Produktspezifikation in der Frühen Phase synergistisch gestaltet werden kann? In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird daher, auf Grundlage des modelltheoretischen und methodischen Gefüges der KaSPro – Karlsruher Schule für Produktentwicklung, die prozessuale und methodische Unterstützung des Produktentwickelnden beim Produktportfolio-übergreifenden Spezifizieren aus Funktionssicht empirisch analysiert, in einer dreiteiligen Systematik synthetisiert sowie in der Entwicklungspraxis angewandt und evaluiert. Der erste Bestandteil der präskriptiven Systematik fokussiert die Definition eines konsistenten Verständnisses sowie die Abbildung und Variation von (Produkt-)Funktionen auf Basis des Referenzsystems im Modell der PGE – Produktgenerationsentwicklung nach Albers. Zu diesem Zweck wird ein Produktfunktions-Modell aus empirischen Erkenntnissen entwickelt, das den Produktentwickelnden beim effektiven Spezifizieren leitet. Den zweiten Kernbestandteil bildet ein generisches Referenz-Produktmodell, das die komplexe Produktspezifikation durch Verknüpfung mit dem erweiterten Systemtripel Ansatz und dem Referenzsystem in der Frühen Phase strukturiert. Vervollständigt wird die Systematik mit einem Referenzprozess zum Produktportfolio-übergreifenden Spezifizieren von Produktfunktionen im Modell der PGE. Im Zuge dessen wird zwischen den vier iterativen Phasen der Generierung und Priorisierung von Funktionsideen [1], der Spezifikation einer Produktfunktion [2], der Realisierung einer Produktfunktion [3] und der Beendigung des Funktionslebenszyklus [4] differenziert. Eine Produktfunktions-Roadmap fungiert als durchgängiges und konsistentes Planungs- und Steuerungsinstrument. Die Evaluationsergebnisse und -erkenntnisse aus Fallstudien in der Sportwagenentwicklung zu Produktfunktionen der Fahrzeugaerodynamik bestätigen die effektive Anwendbarkeit der Unterstützungswerkzeuge und zeigen im Live-Lab IP – Integrierte Produktentwicklung initial einen Erfolgsbeitrag zur Transparenz und Durchgängigkeit der Produktspezifikation aus Funktionssicht