Main Subcommittee Category
Emerging Concepts and Innovative TechnologiesHow would you label your submission?
GovernmentAbstract
The Air Force Research Laboratory Space Vehicles Directorate (AFRL/RV) has a digital transformation underway with Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) as a central pillar of the overall effort. The goal of the MBSE implementation is to assist in and not constrain the normal systems engineering processes that was refined over decades for space flight experiments. Each MBSE model acts as the source of truth for mission/system design, decisions, and communications that leads to building a usable technical baseline. AFRL/RV has an MBSE Model Management Framework that centers around an openly usable and tailorable Space Vehicle Reference Architecture (SVRA) as the hub of integration/updates for the enterprise of project models. The SVRA contains project usages (i.e., read-only versions) of a Component Library of common metamodel elements and reusable, pre-defined components; and an MBSE Style Guide written in Systems Modeling Language (SysML). The various AFRL/RV program models, originating from the SVRA, are reviewed and adopted into the Enterprise System Model where AFRL/RV personnel run analyses on the collection of verified models, and common components can be moved to the Component Library. These Component Library updates are then immediately usable, if the update is locally accepted, in other models built on the SVRA. The SVRA is further used as the starting model in training AFRL personnel how to use MBSE and SysML. The MBSE processes and methods utilized in the AFRL/RV MBSE implementation are the result of many pathfinder efforts across the Department of Defense which have led to much faster execution and a clear path forward.