This presentation was made at the NAFEMS Americas Seminar "Model-Based Engineering: What is it & How Will It Impact Engineering Simulation" held on the 1st of October 2019 in Columbus Ohio

Resource Abstract

Model-Based Engineering is the methodology of developing a set of domain system models, which help to define, design, and document a system under development, which eventually replaces traditional document driven communication to different stakeholders such as Requirements Engineers, Systems Engineers or System Verification and Validation Engineers. In Model based Engineering data will be shared using models, rather than any textual communication, reducing risk of any language barrier. The models created are often graphical or mathematical in nature depicting domain under consideration. Model based Engineering may include system architecture and interactions within subsystems, performance analysis, requirement analysis and flow, simulation of overall system with different components, verification and validation. The process of applying Model based engineering starts by analysing system level requirements. Further by identifying subsystems to satisfy current domain or system and interactions amongst different subsystem should strengthen the behavioural requirements. Each subsystem can carry its own requirement set by thorough analysis. System Architecture created by this process can be central or focal point of entire product development life cycle, as each product development stage, may it be low level design, subsystem testing or system testing can refer to System Architecture and Requirements. To apply Model based Engineering it is absolutely needed to define the system under consideration with specified inputs and outputs, to keep the models more user friendly and self-explanatory, to validate the models, if required then addition of the data driven models for simulation purpose. It is also important to define modelling tools, technologies and methodologies in advance, matching the domain after deliberate considerations and trade-offs. It is important to record objectives and assumptions for any model based engineering. Models can be either abstractions or representations of reality that facilitate the understanding of complexity. A critical task and challenge in Model Based Engineering is the upfront trade and analysis process to ensure the best value system is developed to satisfy the objective. The Model Based Engineering tools are looking beyond just graphical modelling and integration of data and models are becoming increasingly popular. By bringing together different models into a data driven architecture environment, more efficient and predictable product life cycle management can be achieved. With Model Based Engineering, requirements traceability can be handled more efficiently and overall process can be achieved using programming methods. An overall top level system model can be created, which helps to all the stakeholders to visualize the entire system and the surrounding environment and components. The top level system model can be further decomposed into different subsystems, which facilitates verification and validation of the entire system so that, stakeholders can catch any early defect. Thus, Model based Engineering uses model centric approach to drive whole product development process.