Establishing Next Generation Collaboration in Model Based Systems Analysis & Engineering

This paper provides an overview of the Model-Based Systems Analysis and Engineering (MBSA&E) program funded by the National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA). The program aimed to address NASA, Boeing, and aerospace community-wide problems inherent in building, maintaining, and collaborating between models for Model-Based Systems Analysis (MBSA) and Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE). This work proposes open standards for systems analysis and systems engineering to improve modeling and collaboration when executing aircraft design activities. Key activities to meet these goals include developing an Aircraft Data Hierarchy (ADH) for storing configuration data, building standard interfaces for integrating disciplinary models and storing MBSA workflow information, integrating MBSE and MBSA, developing processes for model sharing between organizations that protects intellectual property, and creating an aircraft benchmark exercise to assess NASA’s OpenMDAO and Aviary-based aircraft sizing against industry equivalents. The software products from this work are an ADH, standard interface, and MBSE-ADH connector that are available open-source on GitHub. The model sharing process and benchmarking models were delivered to NASA without restrictions. These products were developed with the support of Collins, the University of Michigan, and General Electric, and tested successfully on NASA’s MBSA&E framework as the first use-case. The advancements are expected to facilitate a more cohesive and collaborative aerospace design ecosystem, ultimately leading to more efficient and innovative aircraft development with the MBSA&E model and industry equivalents. This work is a starting place to begin a wider discussion with the broader aerospace community to grow, mature, and perpetuate these aspiring standards.