An Architectural Framework for Virtual Prototyping of Next Generation Combat Vehicles

Started as an exploratory project in September 2019 and was completed in 2020.

The proposed research aims to facilitate the exploration of new architectures for Next Generation Combat Vehicles (NGCV) through virtual prototyping. By using a formal modeling language (i.e., SysML) for capturing the architectures of vehicles, commonality between vehicle systems and their corresponding simulation models can be exploited to compose models of subsystems and components —both hardware and software—into a full vehicle-level virtual prototype. This would allow for the exploration of a larger number of vehicle architectures by significantly reducing the amount of time and effort needed to generate a virtual prototype, or alternatively, allow for a more thorough analysis and virtual validation of any given vehicle system. In addition, by referencing all models to a “single source of truth” (i.e., the architecture model) one can avoid inconsistencies in the simulation model increasing the confidence that the simulation results can be trusted as representative of the actual vehicle system.

The research objectives of this project are to determine the scope and limitations of model composition, and the compositionality of a SysML-based architectural description language for autonomous vehicles, as applied to Next Generation Combat Vehicles. This work is expected to result also in an infrastructure framework that can be used to generate virtual prototypes at reduced effort and time, and in a way that guarantees internal consistency. Since the architecture and simulation models are both generated from a single source of truth, inconsistencies can be avoided. It is anticipated that this infrastructure could also be used to perform tradestudies across the space of system architectures, and once a systems architecture has been selected, in a continuous integration tool (such as Jenkins) to perform virtual validation of system requirements.

Publications from Prior Work closely related to the proposed project:

1. C. J. J. Paredis, A. Diaz-Calderon, R. Sinha, and P. K. Khosla, “Composable models for simulation-based design,” (in English), Engineering with Computers, vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 112-128, 2001, doi: Doi 10.1007/Pl00007197.
2. T. Johnson, A. Kerzhner, C. J. J. Paredis, and R. Burkhart, “Integrating Models and Simulations of Continuous Dynamics Into SysML,” (in English), Journal of Computing and Information Science in Engineering, vol. 12, no. 1, Mar 2012.
3. Y. Cao, Y. S. Liu, and C. J. J. Paredis, “System-level model integration of design and simulation for mechatronic systems based on SysML,” (in English), Mechatronics, vol. 21, no. 6, pp. 1063-1075, Sep 2011, doi: DOI 10.1016/j.mechatronics.2011.05.003.
4. A. Kerzhner and C. Paredis, “Combining SysML and Model Transformations to Support Systems Engineering Analysis,” Electronic Communications of the EASST, vol. 42, 2011.
5. C. J. J. Paredis and T. Johnson, “Using Omg’s Sysml to Support Simulation,” (in English), 2008 Winter Simulation Conference, Vols 1-5, pp. 2350-2352, 2008, doi: Doi 10.1109/Wsc.2008.4736341.
6. C. J. J. Paredis et al., “An Overview of the SysML-Modelica Transformation Specification,” in 20th Anniversary International INCOSE Symposium, Chicago, IL, July 12-15 2010.
7. J. M. Branscomb, C. J. Paredis, J. Che, and M. J. Jennings, “Supporting multidisciplinary vehicle analysis using a vehicle reference architecture model in SysML,” Procedia Computer Science, vol. 16, pp. 79-88, 2013.
8. W. C. Bailey, J. Che, P. Tsou, and M. Jennings, “A Framework for Automated Model Interface Coordination Using SysML,” Journal of Computing and Information Science in Engineering, vol. 18, no. 3, p. 031010, 2018.
9. G. Sirin, C. J. Paredis, B. Yannou, E. Coatanéa, and E. Landel, “A model identity card to support simulation model development process in a collaborative multidisciplinary design environment,” IEEE Systems Journal, vol. 9, no. 4, pp. 1151-1162, 2015.
10. Y. Wang, E. Garcia, F. Zhang, and D. Casbeer, Cooperative control of multi-agent systems: Theory and applications. John Wiley & Sons, 2017.