A digital twin (DT) is an interactive, real-time
digital representation of a system or a service utilizing onboard
sensor data and Internet of Things (IoT) technology to gain a
better insight into the physical world. With the increasing
complexity of systems and products across many sectors, there
is an increasing demand for complex systems optimization.
Digital twins vary in complexity and are used for managing the
performance, health, and status of a physical system by
virtualizing it. The creation of digital twins enabled by Modelbased
Systems Engineering (MBSE) has aided in increasing
system interconnectivity and simplifying the system
optimization process. More specifically, the combination of
MBSE languages, tools, and methods has served as a starting
point in developing digital twins. This article discusses how
MBSE has previously facilitated the development of digital
twins across various domains, emphasizing both the benefits and
disadvantages of adopting an MBSE enabled digital twin
creation. Further, the article expands on how various levels of
digital twins were generated via the use of MBSE. An MBSE
enabled conceptual framework for developing digital twins is
identified that can be used as a research testbed for developing
digital twins and optimizing systems and system of systems.
Keywords—MBSE, Digital Twin, Digital Shadow, Digital
Model, SysML
more »
« less
Modeling A UAV Surveillance Scenario- An Applied MBSE Approach
As the complexity of both products and systems increases across a wide range of industry sectors, there has been an influx in demand for methods of system organization and optimization. MBSE enhances the ability to obtain, analyze, communicate, and manage data on a comprehensive architecture of a system. In this study, a military combat surveillance scenario is modeled using SysML generating state machine diagrams and activity diagrams using the Magic Model Analyst execution framework plugin. This study seeks to prove the feasibility of an MBSE-enabled framework using SysML to create and simulate a surveillance system that monitors and reports on the health status and performance of an armored fighting vehicle (combat tank) through an Unmanned Ariel Vehicle (UAV). The Magic System of Systems Architect, which actively promotes system development architectural frameworks, was used to construct SysML-compliant models, allowing the creation of intricate model diagrams. The construction of the UAV surveillance scenario emphasized the capability of modifying a diagram feature and ensuring that the alteration is communicated to all linked model diagrams. This study builds on a previously published MBSE-enabled conceptual framework for creating digital twins. The purpose of this research is to test and validate the framework's procedures.
Keywords—MBSE, SysML, MBSE framework, UAV, Surveillance
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 2112650
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10417518
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- IEEE International Systems Conference (SysCon)
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1 to 8
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
null (Ed.)An observed increase in systems scale and complexity has led to a significant momentum in exploring, identifying, and adopting model based systems engineering (MBSE) tools and techniques amongst research communities and industry practitioners. Several attempts to transform systems design and engineering practices through the use of MBSE in academia and industry has led to a considerable increase in the number of articles published containing the keyword “MBSE.” This growth serves as the motivation in this paper to explore the MBSE landscape with the help of text mining techniques to identify the most often used key terms, tools, and languages, in the context of research in MBSE and the thematic aspects defining the use of MBSE by researchers and practitioners. The objective of this paper is to provide a structured comprehensive overview of research contributions across the MBSE landscape by employing text mining techniques for: (a) identifying the concepts and methodologies inferred upon in relation to MBSE, and (b) classifying the literature published to identify commonalities across academic researchers and practitioners using MBSE tools and methods. For this purpose, the abstracts of 2380 relevant articles published in the period of the last two decades from five different databases are mined. It is found that the terms “SysML,” “Cyber Physical Systems,” and “Production” are the most used terms among researchers across the MBSE landscape with SysML being the most widely used modeling language. Further, six major thematic topics are identified that classify articles from over the last two decades with an increasing interest observed in the use of MBSE to support manufacturing and production engineering activities, especially in the cyber physical systems domain. The contributions of this paper provide a leeway on using text mining techniques to understand the research directions that are currently of interest in the field of MBSE and thereby identify potential future research directions.more » « less
-
Augmented Reality (AR) devices offer novel capabilities that can be exploited in AR systems to positively impact human-machine interactions in a variety of future-work and education contexts. This paper presents a systems model for a no-code AR systems framework that can be used to create AR applications that present just-in-time informatics to assist and guide users in the completion of complex task sequences while ensuring operator and environment safety. The salient structural and behavioral aspects of the system, and key use cases are modeled using the Systems Modeling Language (SysML). Representative examples of the model are presented using use case, block definition, internal block, activity, and state-machine diagrams. These models offer new insights into how AR capabilities can be integrated with a variety of engineered systems. In the future such SysML models can steer the design of new tools and an ontology to strengthen connections to domain knowledge.more » « less
-
Augmented Reality (AR) devices offer novel capabilities that can be exploited in AR systems to positively impact human-machine interactions in a variety of future-work and education contexts. This paper presents a systems model for a no-code AR systems framework that can be used to create AR applications that present just-in-time informatics to assist and guide users in the completion of complex task sequences while ensuring operator and environment safety. The salient structural and behavioral aspects of the system, and key use cases are modeled using the Systems Modeling Language (SysML). Representative examples of the model are presented using use case, block definition, internal block, activity, and state-machine diagrams. These models offer new insights into how AR capabilities can be integrated with a variety of engineered systems. In the future such SysML models can steer the design of new tools and an ontology to strengthen connections to domain knowledge.more » « less
-
null (Ed.)Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) is the formalized application of modeling to support various system evolving stages starting from the conceptual design phase to all the life cycle phases that follow. To facilitate in an efficient system behavior design process, in this paper, a Design Structure Matrix (DSM) based approach is developed and illustrated for determining the operational sequence of activities relevant to requirements of the system and in identifying the concurrent activities as well. A triangularization algorithm method is extended especially for application on activity diagrams to determine knowledge activities in an interaction graph to identify groups of activities and arrange them concurrently. The findings through the DSM based approach are validated by a system engineering expert and are implemented to construct the MBSE activity diagram to facilitate an enhanced behavior design of the system. This paper illustrates the use of Design Structure Matrix to facilitate modeling interdependencies between activities and the approach to aggregate the resulted sequential and concurrent activities with the activity diagram, applied to a case study of Execute Hohmann Transfer based on DellSat-77 Satellite System. In addition, the potentials benefits of using a Design Structure Matrix methodology for assisting Model Based Systems Engineering activities for enhanced systems behavior design is portrayed.more » « less