Accelerating and improving the development of new aeronautical systems through the DLR Digital Engineering Environment

Kurzfassung

The development of a new aeronautical system – an aircraft or a part of it, like a subsystem or a component – is becoming increasingly challenging, with impact on the development time, quality and cost. This complexity is primarily caused by the higher quantity of generated data and information. Especially due the introduction of new aeronautical technologies, data and information may be often uncertain or largely unknown. In addition, nowadays new systems are not designed and built by single organizations, but by different entities of the aeronautical supply chain collaborating together, which have to exchange design data and information. In order to tackle all these challenges, original processes and methods supporting the development of new and innovative systems are required. A process is defined as a logical sequence of activities performed to achieve a particular objective [2]. More specifically, a Systems Engineering Technical Process (e.g. [1]) prescribes different activities aiming at developing a new system. These activities include the definition of stakeholders and collection of their needs, the transformation of needs into technical requirements, the generation of multiple system concepts (also called architectures) compliant with the requirements, and verification and validation activities. A method, instead, specifies which techniques can be adopted to perform the activities of a process (adapted from [2]). All the information produced during a Systems Engineering Technical Process [1] can be collected into multiple documents, but this hampers the system development due to several limitations (e.g. lack of traceability between information spread in different locations). Digitalization and model-based methods instead can improve all the activities of a Systems Engineering process. Digital models can facilitate the collection and sharing of information, improve the traceability, and increase the opportunities for automation (e.g. for checking consistency among the entire design data) and reuse of data, hence accelerating the whole development process. This is why new digital methods belonging to Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) approaches [3] are becoming even more popular since the last decades among multiple practitioners [4]. Methods used in MBSE approaches support activities regarding the identification of stakeholders, collection of their needs, transformation of needs into requirements and generation of system architectures. The DLR Institute of System Architecting in Aeronautics is conceiving new digital model-based methods for almost seven years. In addition, the research group is creating new tools implementing these methods, hence covering the gap with the current commercial and open-source software that doesn’t implement yet new and promising methods derived from the research. All the DLR tools are being interfaced to each other and integrated into a single Digital Engineering Environment. The aim of the presentation is to introduce this environment, highlighting the original digital methods implemented by the tools, and showing all the main benefits brought by them. Each individual tool of the Digital Engineering Environment supports a different activity of a Systems Engineering Technical Process. The tool ARMADE [5] supports the definition of system stakeholders, needs and requirements by using structured methods like the ones recommended by Systems Engineering organizations (e.g. INCOSE in their guide for writing requirements [6]) and by the authors [7]. These methods ensure that complete lists of stakeholder needs are defined, and then correct, complete, verifiable and unambiguous requirements are derived. A second tool that is part of the environment – called ADORE [8] – supports the definition and modelling of large architectural design spaces, which consist of many alternative system architectures that can fulfil all the functionalities expected from the system. The methods implemented in ADORE ensure the generation of innovative and promising architectures. The next activity of a development process concerns the design of the system (e.g. propulsion system), where all the system components (e.g. engine) that are part of any given architecture are characterized with performance (e.g. thrust), dimension and properties (e.g. mass). This activity can be supported by Multidisciplinary Design and Optimization (MDO) methods and tools, which entail the formulation and execution of workflows for designing and optimizing a given system architecture. MDAx [9] is the software developed by the group and accelerating the formulation of MDO workflows, e.g. supporting and improving the definition and connection – in terms of shared input/output variables – of all the necessary design disciplines (e.g. aerodynamics, structures). The formulated MDO workflow is then ready to be exported and executed in any MDO framework, e.g. DLR’s RCE [10]. One of the main and original features of the DLR Digital Engineering Environment is the bridging of development activities that typically belong to an MBSE approach (e.g. requirements definition, system architecting) to MDO. This is enabled for example by the integration of the system architecting activity (and hence ADORE) into the MDO, so that the optimizer can identify the optimal system architecture [8]. Finally, VALORISE [11] is the last tool of the environment, which enables the exploration of the whole trade-space, and supports decision-makers in taking design decisions. Few aeronautical case studies will be used in the presentation to illustrate the Digital Engineering Environment, and the methods implemented by the tools. Benefits of the environment – including traceability of information, possibility to automatize some activities, acceleration of the development process – will be demonstrated by means of the case studies. References [1] INCOSE, Systems Engineering Handbook v.5, 2023. [2] J. A. Estefan, "Survey of Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) Methodologies," Incose MBSE Focus Group, 25(8), 1-12, 2008. [3] Technical Operations - INCOSE, "Systems Engineering Vision 2020 - INCOSE-TP-2004-004-02," 2007. [4] A. L. Ramos, J. V. Ferreira and J. Barceló, "Model-Based Systems Engineering: An Emerging Approach for Modern Systems," IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Part C (Applications and Reviews), vol. 42, no. 1, pp. 101-111, 2011. [5] A. Chojnacki, G. Donelli, L. Boggero, P. Shiva Prakasha and B. Nagel, "Adaptable MBSE Problem Definition with ARMADE: Perspectives from Firefighting and AAM SoS Environments," MDPI engineering proceedings, vol. 90, no. 1, 2025. [6] INCOSE, "Guide for Writing Requirements, INCOSE‐TP‐2010‐006‐01," 2012. [7] L. Boggero, P. D. Ciampa and B. Nagel, "An MBSE Architectural Framework for the Agile Definition of System Stakeholders, Needs and Requirements," in AIAA Aviation Forum, Washington (US-DC), 2021. [8] J. Bussemaker, L. Boggero and B. Nagel, "System Architecture Design Space Exploration: Integration with Computational Environments and Efficient Optimization," in AIAA Aviation, Las Vegas (US - NV), 2024. [9] S. Garg, J. Bussemaker, L. Boggero and B. Nagel, "MDAx: Enhancements in a collaborative MDAO workflow formulation tool," in ICAS, Florence (IT), 2024 (to be accepted). [10] B. Boden, J. Flink, N. Först, R. Mischke, K. Schaffert, A. Weinert, A. Wohlan and A. Schreiber, "RCE: an integration environment for engineering and science," SoftwareX, vol. 15, 2021. [11] G. Donelli, L. Boggero and B. Nagel, "Concurrent Value-Driven Decision-Making Process for the Aircraft, Supply Chain and Manufacturing Systems Design," Systems, vol. 11, no. 12, 2023.