An architectural description for the application of MBSE in complex systems

The design of a complex warship is a multi-disciplinary effort which often encounters major challenges, particularly with respect to integration across interfaces in the System of Systems (SoS). In principle, the goal of Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) with respect to system design is to provide a means of capturing and communicating the system design in a structured, consistent, and coherent fashion; that can be easily assessed by engineering teams and quickly analysed using queries and toolsets. The focus of this paper is to investigate the potential to achieve a consistent description, identify a viable methodology that minimises mismatch in requirements and to avoid an extended design lifecycle. This study highlights the need to develop a generic Architectural Description (AD) that is based on a common ontology which would clearly define the fundamental tenets of applying state-of-the-art Architectural Frameworks (AFs) in naval ship design. An investigation on the effectiveness and accuracy of a graph-based approach is needed to assess whether it is possible to create a ‘Rosetta stone’ for AFs, which links any two or more different model viewpoints in different AF’s using the approach.