Results for “MBSE” | Engineering Papers

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

A PPE Use Case on Configuration Management Approach for MBSE

Systems engineers worldwide have been working to implement Model-based Systems Engineering (MBSE) environments, tools, and methodologies. MBSE is a formalized application of modeling to support systems engineering, including requirements, design, analysis, verification, and validation activities over the project’s lifecycle[1]; MBSE captures the system data into a digital environment. Significant benefits of MBSE includes a reduction in the time in performing systems engineering activities and an improvement higher fidelity data production. As more Systems Engineers are using MBSE, the models it produces are becoming the source of truth for Systems Engineering artifacts. As we move towards using these models as the source of truth, a more rigorous Configuration Management (CM) infrastructure is needed. Many of the MBSE tools provide CM options but utilizing them efficiently and effectively can be challenging. More rigorous methods and tools are needed to assist with keeping track of changes in the model, making sure inadvertent changes to baseline data did not occur, visibility of changes in the different model versions, and the impacts of changes to the models. System engineers and configuration management personnel from the Power and Propulsion Element (PPE) project at NASA Glenn Research Center have been working to develop a modeling construct that allows models to be the source of truth and maintain a configuration managed baseline. This paper presents a process that leverages the existing CM tools and describes how PPE used this process to manage changes more rigorously. It will describe the process behind building the model architecture that utilizes the MBSE tool capabilities and the configuration management process. It will contain some of the advantages and disadvantages of the architecture that the PPE project had settled upon utilizing, as well as some enhanced capabilities that the PPE MBSE team has developed.

MBSE↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

MBSE Applications for the MSR SRC Mars Ascent Vehicle

The objective of the NASA Mars Sample Return (MSR) Campaign is to collect samples from the surface of Mars and return them to Earth for scientific research. The Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) will be integrated into a larger Mars Sample Retrieval Lander (SRL) for transit to and storage on Mars. After all Martian samples have been collected and loaded into the MAV payload assembly, MAV will deliver the samples from the Martian surface to Mars orbit. A separate spacecraft, the Earth Return Orbiter (ERO) will retrieve the samples from Mars orbit and return them to Earth. To address common systems engineering challenges associated with using traditional systems engineering practices on complex projects, the MAV systems engineering team has explored implementation of Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) tools and languages. This paper describes the current state of implementation and development of the MAV MBSE model with the Systems Modeling Language (SysML) within the scope of the MAV Systems Requirement Cycle (SRC) systems engineering workflow. The MAV MBSE model has been developed within Magic Draw – a SysML editor commonly used to implement MBSE. The MAV MBSE model has been used to develop mission phase functional flow diagrams for the Concept of Operations, decompose mission to vehicle subsystem functions, develop a functional decomposition, derive functional requirements, trace requirements up to customer-imposed requirements, trace requirements within MAV requirement space, identify requirements trace gaps, define and map the physical design space architecture, allocate requirements to subsystems, develop validation items, define assembly, integration, and test (AI&T) operations, and trace these items across driving goals to develop an integrated digital thread of systems engineering information used to drive design specifications, decision making, and ultimately design verification and validation. Findings and results associated with implementing MBSE in these ways, alongside traditional methods will be discussed.

MBSE↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

MBSE Applications for the MSR SRC Mars Ascent Vehicle

The objective of the NASA Mars Sample Return (MSR) Campaign is to collect samples from the surface of Mars and return them to Earth for scientific research. The Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) will be integrated into a larger Mars Sample Retrieval Lander (SRL) for transit to and storage on Mars. After all Martian samples have been collected and loaded into the MAV payload assembly, MAV will deliver the samples from the Martian surface to Mars orbit. A separate spacecraft, the Earth Return Orbiter (ERO) will retrieve the samples from Mars orbit and return them to Earth. To address common systems engineering challenges associated with using traditional systems engineering practices on complex projects, the MAV systems engineering team has explored implementation of Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) tools and languages. This paper describes the current state of implementation and development of the MAV MBSE model with the Systems Modeling Language (SysML) within the scope of the MAV Systems Requirement Cycle (SRC) systems engineering workflow. The MAV MBSE model has been developed within Magic Draw – a SysML editor commonly used to implement MBSE. The MAV MBSE model has been used to develop mission phase functional flow diagrams for the Concept of Operations, decompose mission to vehicle subsystem functions, develop a functional decomposition, derive functional requirements, trace requirements up to customer-imposed requirements, trace requirements within MAV requirement space, identify requirements trace gaps, define and map the physical design space architecture, allocate requirements to subsystems, develop validation items, define assembly, integration, and test (AI&T) operations, and trace these items across driving goals to develop an integrated digital thread of systems engineering information used to drive design specifications, decision making, and ultimately design verification and validation. Findings and results associated with implementing MBSE in these ways, alongside traditional methods will be discussed.

MBSE↗

NASA NTRS2012

An MBSE Approach to Space Suit Development

The EVA/Space Suit Development Office (ESSD) Systems Engineering and Integration (SE&I) team has utilized MBSE in multiple programs. After developing operational and architectural models, the MBSE framework was expanded to link the requirements space to the system models through functional analysis and interfaces definitions. By documenting all the connections within the technical baseline, ESSD experienced significant efficiency improvements in analysis and identification of change impacts. One of the biggest challenges presented to the MBSE structure was a program transition and restructuring effort, which was completed successfully in 4 months culminating in the approval of a new EVA Technical Baseline. During this time three requirements sets spanning multiple DRMs were streamlined into one NASA-owned Systems Requirement Document (SRD) that successfully identified requirements relevant to the current hardware development effort while remaining extensible to support future hardware developments. A capability-based hierarchy was established to provide a more flexible framework for future space suit development that can support multiple programs with minimal rework of basic EVA/Space Suit requirements. This MBSE approach was most recently applied for generation of an EMU Demonstrator technical baseline being developed for an ISS DTO. The relatively quick turnaround of operational concepts, architecture definition, and requirements for this new suit development has allowed us to test and evolve the MBSE process and framework in an extremely different setting while still offering extensibility and traceability throughout ESSD projects. The ESSD MBSE framework continues to be evolved in order to support integration of all products associated with the SE&I engine.

Cordova, Lauren↗

NASA NTRS2016

Model Based Mission Assurance in a Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) Framework: State-of-the-Art Assessment

This report explores the current state of the art of Safety and Mission Assurance (S&MA) in projects that have shifted towards Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE). Its goal is to provide insight into how NASA’s Office of Safety and Mission Assurance (OSMA) should respond to this shift. In MBSE, systems engineering information is organized and represented in models: rigorous computer-based representations, which collectively make many activities easier to perform, less error prone, and scalable. S&MA practices must shift accordingly. The “Objective Structure Hierarchies” recently developed by OSMA provide the framework for understanding this shift. Although the objectives themselves will remain constant, S&MA practices (activities, processes, tools) to achieve them are subject to change. This report presents insights derived from literature studies and interviews. The literature studies gleaned assurance implications from reports of space-related applications of MBSE. The interviews with knowledgeable S&MA and MBSE personnel discovered concerns and ideas for how assurance may adapt. Preliminary findings and observations are presented on the state of practice of S&MA with respect to MBSE, how it is already changing, and how it is likely to change further. Finally, recommendations are provided on how to foster the evolution of S&MA to best fit with MBSE.

Aerospace engineering↗

NASA NTRS2016

Exposing Hidden Parts of the SE Process: MBSE Patterns and Tools for Tracking and Traceability

An interesting benefit of applying Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) is that the rigor and coordination intrinsic to MBSE forces us to apply Systems Engineering to our own traditional activities, processes, and products, which results in richer, more expressive models, more powerful reasoning, and a clearer and more effective Systems Engineering (SE) process. Our MBSE frameworks and languages contain semantic richness sufficient to describe our systems at any particular point in time, often with an emphasis on the description of the system at major milestones. This is unarguably a real asset. However, when we apply MBSE in service of missions that are in development, rapidly evolving, of a larger scale, and where interpersonal communication is a critical part of the design process, we discover that our frameworks and languages are still not quite rich enough to enable us to ask the kinds of questions and get the kinds of answers we want in order to address the concerns of day to day work. This paper will discuss some patterns and tools we have developed to help address some of the not-always-explicit SE concerns that we have identified through our MBSE work. Particularly, this paper will discuss flexible yet practical methods for defining and capturing maturity, workflow, and agreement traceability within our system models, extensible ways to perform and track model audits, and ways to report and interact with this knowledge in the context of MBSE applied to support NASA’s Europa Project.

Jackson, Maddalena↗

NASA NTRS2016

Exposing Hidden Parts of the SE Process: MBSE Patterns and Tools for Tracking and Traceability

An interesting benefit of applying Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) is that the rigor and coordination intrinsic to MBSE forces us to apply Systems Engineering to our own traditional activities, processes, and products, which results in richer, more expressive models, more powerful reasoning, and a clearer and more effective Systems Engineering (SE) process. Our MBSE frameworks and languages contain semantic richness sufficient to describe our systems at any particular point in time, often with an emphasis on the description of the system at major milestones. This is unarguably a real asset. However, when we apply MBSE in service of missions that are in development, rapidly evolving, of a larger scale, and where interpersonal communication is a critical part of the design process, we discover that our frameworks and languages are still not quite rich enough to enable us to ask the kinds of questions and get the kinds of answers we want in order to address the concerns of day to day work. This paper will discuss some patterns and tools we have developed to help address some of the not-always-explicit SE concerns that we have identified through our MBSE work. Particularly, this paper will discuss flexible yet practical methods for defining and capturing maturity, workflow, and agreement traceability within our system models, extensible ways to perform and track model audits, and ways to report and interact with this knowledge in the context of MBSE applied to support NASA’s Europa Project

Jackson, Maddalena↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

MBSE Execution of Scalable Autonomous Operations for a High Density Vertiplex

The High Density Vertiplex (HDV) subproject of NASA’s Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) project adopted Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) and NASA SE processes were executed via MBSE using MagicDraw. Since the adoption of MBSE and utilization of MagicDraw, the systems engineering team has made tremendous strides in each pillar of MBSE including, requirements, behavior, and structure. Scalable Autonomous Operations (SAO) was a stage in the development of the High Density Vertiplex focusing on the autonomous terminal operations of a vertiport with sUAS aircraft. MBSE served the systems engineering team to document and verify the physical architecture and capture a logical architecture of SAO for distribution to the AAM community. This paper will detail methodologies that were created to successfully execute NASA SE processes via MBSE in the SAO stage as well as highlight challenges and lessons learned.

Demetrios Katsaduros↗

NASA NTRS2016

The Value of Successful MBSE Adoption

The value of successful adoption of Model Based System Engineering (MBSE) practices is hard to quantify. Most engineers and project managers look at the success in terms of cost. But there are other ways to quantify the value of MBSE and the steps necessary to achieve adoption. The Glenn Research Center (GRC) has been doing Model-Based Engineering (design, structural, etc.) for years, but the system engineering side has not. Since 2010, GRC has been moving from documents centric to MBSE/SysML. Project adoption of MBSE has been slow, but is steadily increasing in both MBSE usage and complexity of generated products. Sharing of knowledge of lessons learned in the implementation of MBSE/SysML is key for others who want to be successful. Along with GRC's implementation, NASA is working hard to increase the successful implementation of MBSE across all the other centers by developing guidelines, templates and libraries for projects to utilize. This presentation will provide insight into recent GRC and NASA adoption efforts, lessons learned and best practices.

MBSE↗

NASA NTRS2018

A Pilot Study to Determine MBSE Utility for Process Modeling of Complex Interfaces

Modeling a full system or a complete interface between systems in a MBSE environment is a very large task and not all organizations will benefit enough from using MBSE to offset the effort that is required to do this. Completely modeling a system or interface is not necessary to evaluate the utility of MBSE for a specific application or organization. A small pilot can be executed over a short period of time that only models small portions of a system or interface and, if structured properly, this pilot can successfully demonstrate the utility of MBSE for an organization before having to invest a larger amount of resources to fully implement and deploy MBSE. This paper documents one such pilot that was conducted for NASA’s Launch Services Program.

MBSE↗

NASA NTRS2018

A Pilot Study to Determine MBSE Utility for Process Modeling of Complex Interfaces

Modeling a full system or a complete interface between systems in a MBSE environment is a very large task and not all organizations will benefit enough from using MBSE to offset the effort that is required to do this. Completely modeling a system or interface is not necessary to evaluate the utility of MBSE for a specific application or organization. A small pilot can be executed over a short period of time that only models small portions of a system or interface and, if structured properly, this pilot can successfully demonstrate the utility of MBSE for an organization before having to invest a larger amount of resources to fully implement and deploy MBSE. This paper documents one such pilot that was conducted for NASA's Launch Services Program.

MBSE↗

NASA NTRS2018

A Pilot Study to Determine MBSE Utility for Process Modeling of Complex Interfaces

Modeling a full system or a complete interface between systems in a MBSE environment is a very large task and not all organizations will benefit enough from using MBSE to offset the effort that is required to do this. Completely modeling a system or interface is not necessary to evaluate the utility of MBSE for a specific application or organization. A small pilot can be executed over a short period of time that only models small portions of a system or interface and, if structured properly, this pilot can successfully demonstrate the utility of MBSE for an organization before having to invest a larger amount of resources to fully implement and deploy MBSE. This paper documents one such pilot that was conducted for NASA's Launch Services Program.

MBSE↗

NASA NTRS2016

MBSE-Driven Visualization of Requirements Allocation and Traceability

In a Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) infusion effort, there is a usually a concerted effort to define the information architecture, ontologies, and patterns that drive the construction and architecture of MBSE models, but less attention is given to the logical follow-on of that effort: how to practically leverage the resulting semantic richness of a well-formed populated model to enable systems engineers to work more effectively, as MBSE promises. While ontologies and patterns are absolutely necessary, an MBSE effort must also design and provide practical demonstration of value (through human-understandable representations of model data that address stakeholder concerns) or it will not succeed. This paper will discuss opportunities that exist for visualization in making the richness of a well-formed model accessible to stakeholders, specifically stakeholders who rely on the model for their day-to-day work. This paper will discuss the value added by MBSE-driven visualizations in the context of a small case study of interactive visualizations created and used on NASA's proposed Europa Mission. The case study visualizations were created for the purpose of understanding and exploring targeted aspects of requirements flow, allocation, and comparing the structure of that flow-down to a conceptual project decomposition. The work presented in this paper is an example of a product that leverages the richness and formalisms of our knowledge representation while also responding to the quality attributes SEs care about.

Model Based Systems Engineering↗

NASA NTRS2016

MBSE-Driven Visualization of Requirements Allocation and Traceability

In a Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) infusion effort, there is a usually a concerted effort to define the information architecture, ontologies, and patterns that drive the construction and architecture of MBSE models, but less attention is given to the logical follow-on of that effort: how to practically leverage the resulting semantic richness of a well formed populated model to enable systems engineers to work more effectively, as MBSE promises. While ontologies and patterns are absolutely necessary, an MBSE effort must also design and provide practical demonstration of value (through human-understandable representations of model data that address stakeholder concerns) or it will not succeed. This paper will discuss opportunities that exist for visualization in making the richness of a well-formed model accessible to stakeholders, specifically stakeholders who rely on the model for their day-to-day work. This paper will discuss the value added by MBSE-driven visualizations in the context of a small case study of interactive visualizations created and used on NASA’s proposed Europa Mission. The case study visualizations were created for the purpose of understanding and exploring targeted aspects of requirements flow, allocation, and comparing the structure of that flow-down to a conceptual project decomposition. The work presented in this paper is an example of a product that leverages the richness and formalisms of our knowledge representation while also responding to the quality attributes SEs care about.

Model Based Systems Engineering↗

NASA NTRS2020

NASA Quality Assurance in an MBSE world

Over the past decade or so, the emergence of Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) has demonstrated its desirability and value in terms of 1) being a single source of truth, 2) unambiguous definitions and relationships, and 3) after representation, the ability to explore/extract any sets of data on demand. While much work has been done in showing the value to the system engineering discipline in these areas, how does that value translate to the Safety and Mission Assurance (S&MA) world? This paper provides a vision of a very desirable future of NASA S&MA after it is fully integrated into the MBSE framework. We explore the impact and consequences of the MBSE Value items discussed above and how they impact the disciplines of quality assurance, reliability and maintainability, system safety, and software assurance. We provide insight into how the MBSE modeling tools can be used to define S&MA processes (ideally as a result of Use Case [1] elaboration of processes represented in MagicDraw®), produce S&MA products (ViewEditor output of various items), and represent S&MA disciplines (S&MA inside of MagicDraw). We also provide insight into the degree to which some elements can be directly integrated into a SysML® model and when, as often happens, an interface to some external source must be provided. The desirability of this future is part of the reason for the NASA Office of Safety and Mission Assurance’s (OSMA) recent creation of a Model Based Mission Assurance (MBMA) Program [2] and the MBMA annual workshops. We briefly summarize the efforts to date to generate S&MA Use Cases for eventual deployment into pilot and project efforts. Even simple use of the SysML modeling tools can be used to capture quality assurance tasks and integrate them with the systems engineering and produce products that are easy to use by quality practitioners that are unfamiliar with these methods. We anticipate finding opportunities to pilot and implement various Quality Assurance (QA) Use Cases in FY20. The MBMA Program is focused on implementation; the NASA Office of the Chief Engineer's Community of Practice, as well as the SmallSat communities, are very interested in the integration of S&MA. Finally, as projects move forward utilizing whatever efficiency increases they can find in a cost-constrained environment, the S&MA community cannot be caught unawares and needs to continue preparing for the ever-growing implementation of MBSE across NASA and our government and commercial partners.

Evans, John W↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Configuration and Data Management of the NASA Power and Propulsion Element MBSE Model(s)

Systems engineers worldwide have been working to implement Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) environments, tools, and methodologies. A significant, expected benefit from MBSE is a reduction in the time commitment for all aspects of systems engineering. Although advances in MBSE have occurred, a gap has emerged between the traditional configuration management (CM) processes for documents and those needed in an MBSE environment.

MBSE↗

NASA NTRS2016

Relating MBSE to Spacecraft Development: A NASA Pathfinder

The NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) has sponsored a Pathfinder Study to investigate how Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) and Model Based Engineering (MBE) techniques can be applied by NASA spacecraft development projects. The objectives of this Pathfinder Study included analyzing both the products of the modeling activity, as well as the process and tool chain through which the spacecraft design activities are executed. Several aspects of MBSE methodology and process were explored. Adoption and consistent use of the MBSE methodology within an existing development environment can be difficult. The Pathfinder Team evaluated the possibility that an "MBSE Template" could be developed as both a teaching tool as well as a baseline from which future NASA projects could leverage. Elements of this template include spacecraft system component libraries, data dictionaries and ontology specifications, as well as software services that do work on the models themselves. The Pathfinder Study also evaluated the tool chain aspects of development. Two chains were considered: 1. The Development tool chain, through which SysML model development was performed and controlled, and 2. The Analysis tool chain, through which both static and dynamic system analysis is performed. Of particular interest was the ability to exchange data between SysML and other engineering tools such as CAD and Dynamic Simulation tools. For this study, the team selected a Mars Lander vehicle as the element to be designed. The paper will discuss what system models were developed, how data was captured and exchanged, and what analyses were conducted.

Othon, Bill↗

NASA NTRS2018

Is MBSE Helping? Measuring Value on Europa Clipper

JPL’s Integrated Model Centric Engineering Initiative (IMCE) has led the infusion of MBSE at JPL. In 2009 I authored for IMCE a set of challenges that confronted systems engineering at JPL, based on examination of issues and lessons from several recent projects (the “Five System Engineering Challenges”). In 2012 I augmented this work to describe specific areas where it appeared MBSE could help address these challenges. Around the same time, the Europa Clipper Mission became the first project at JPL to attempt, in close collaboration with IMCE, a widespread adoption of MBSE. This adoption has been highly successful so far. Europa Clipper completed Phase A (Formulation) with a successful System Requirements Review / Mission Definition Review, and is nearing the end of Phase B, with a successful Flight System Preliminary Design Review in October 2017. This is an opportune time to take stock of the progress and the work yet to go. This paper proposes a practical method for measuring value added through use of MBSE, applies this method to the Europa Clipper Project, and suggests how it might be applied to other projects and organizations.

Bayer, Todd↗