Bidirectional Graphical Modelling Supporting Concurrent Spacecraft Design

Abstract

A graphical representation of the system under design in form of diagrams is a powerful way to present complex relationships. Diagrams appear in almost every concurrent design activity in some way sooner or later in the process. Generally they help to explain the design or give an overview so that the other stakeholders can quickly understand a (sub-) system build-up or a proposed solution. Furthermore diagrams are also important for documentation purposes (presentations, reports, interface control documents). Typically the diagrams are made in some external tool and the content is not linked to the constantly changing system model. Especially considering the fast pace of concurrent design studies, such diagrams become quickly inconsistent and outdated, thus breaking the model-based paradigm. This is the motivation for the work presented in this paper to include basic support for graphical modeling within the Model-based System Engineering tool called Virtual Satellite. The paper presents three different diagram types, explains their content and relevance for concurrent engineering sessions. It further mentions implementation details and the used technologies to include bidirectional graphical modeling editors in the Virtual Satellite software.