In a traditional system development approach the development process begins by defining requirement contained in a requirements document. The requirements document provides a tool for managing the design of a complex system. From the requirements document, a textual design specification is created. Ideally, the design specification provides complete documentation of all aspects of the system design. The system design will evolve over the duration of the design
phase of the project. As the design specification becomes increasingly detailed, the design of each subsystem begins to impose requirements for how that subsystem interfaces with other subsystems in the vehicle. These imposed interface requirements are fed back and folded into the requirements document.
Prior to the use of simulation and modeling the development of a vehicle required prototypes be iteratively designed, built, tested, and re-designed. This “build and break” approach to system design was very slow and costly. In an effort to achieve more cost effective development programs, modeling and simulation emerged as a method to reduce the number of iterations. Simulation provided a way to mathematically model each subsystem, or component within each subsystem, and iterate the mathematical representation to produce a superior design. Simulation became the preferred technique for finding an optimal design for each subsystem. Upon completing the simulation and modeling activities the design was documented in the design specification. Although the design continued to be largely textual, the use of simulation and modeling resulted in a better design and enabled the development program to reduce the number of prototypes required to reach the final product.
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| File | MIME type | Size (KB) | Language | Download | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Understanding Advanced System Integration Labs (Simulation Centric System Integration).pdf | application/pdf | 2.35 MB | English | DOWNLOAD! |
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Summary
Modeling and simulation have become key tools for the development of advanced aerospace and defense vehicles. Simulation techniques and tools have been adopted at numerous stages in an advanced development process and enable design teams to develop their products faster, cheaper, and better.
As the use of simulation has gained momentum and become a necessary core competency for any serious aerospace and defense organization, proliferation of the use of electronic systems has also emerged in parallel. An estimated 80% of new system capability and complexity is inserted through the use and expanded role of electronic systems. Advanced embedded electronic systems collect and share more data to obtain greater operational awareness. This operational awareness provides greater power efficiency, higher performance (using various measures), improved safety, and much more. In order to efficiently implement a vehicle electronic system architecture able to collect and share this massive amount of operational data, the system makes increasing use of vehicle networks. The resulting vehicle design includes tightly networked electronic systems dependent on time and event synchronous interoperability.
In order to meet the challenges of these complex and highly interoperable systems, the System Integration Lab (SIL) has become a key component in the development process. The SIL is a risk reduction facility where the complete vehicle, including software and hardware, can be integrated, tested and evaluated for both stand alone functionality and interoperability prior to building the first production prototype. The SIL provides a vehicle test facility that is a cross between a pure simulation and the final system.