Traceable System of Systems Explorations Using RCE Workflows

Abstract

The System of Systems (SoS) framework plays a pivotal role in delimiting aircraft design spaces by examining interactions among its Constituent Systems (CS). Each CS has a distinct collection of capabilities, some of which may be shared with other CS. The framework explores emergent behaviours that arise from communication between the CS within the SoS. These emergent behaviours are characterized by their unattainability by any individual CS and result from their collaborative nature. The identification of these emergent behaviours enables System of Systems Engineering (SoSE) to pinpoint the most valuable configurations of the SoS, thereby maximizing the collective value. Furthermore, these emergent behaviours aid in stipulating design requirements for new systems based on the capabilities outlined in the SoS study. To map the relationship between needs, capabilities, requirements, and behaviours, maintaining traceability throughout the study is paramount.This research employs workflows created using the Remote Component Environment (RCE), a specialized tool for structured and automated task development. The objective is to showcase RCE's integration capabilities- specifically for software tools and Python scripts- with task scheduling. This integration enables swift extraction of results, making them available at every step, thus augmenting analysis efficiency. The study focuses on the perspective of an aircraft designer during the early concept generation phase, specifically applied to the development of an electric Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) concept for wildfire detection.