The MBSE competence at the German Aerospace Center

Abstract

Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) is gaining more and more popularity among different practitioners in academia, research centers and industries, due to all its claimed advantages, e.g. in terms of improved collaboration and communication between system developer teams, increased traceability, and possibility of reusing models. Different MBSE approaches and tools are in use since several years also at the German Aerospace Center (DLR), where research is addressed in multiple domains: aeronautics, space, energy, transport, security and digitalization. However, all the current MBSE initiatives at the DLR are focused within single domains, while an increased interoperability of MBSE approaches and tools across the different DLR domains would greatly improve engineering processes and knowledge of the whole DLR. The research described in this paper therefore addresses the recent activities performed to identity which MSBE approaches and tools are currently in use in the different research domains of the DLR. In this context, a great part of the MBSE competence spread among the entire organization is collected and assessed, showing that DLR is very active in MBSE-related research performed in different domains.