This document discusses digitalizing the engineering lifecycle through task automation and reuse. It proposes a knowledge-centric systems engineering approach using a knowledge management strategy called "Sailing the V". This involves defining a controlled vocabulary and formalizing relationships between terms, textual patterns, and rules to infer information and link system artifacts like requirements, models, and simulations. The goal is to automate tasks, enable reuse, ensure quality, and provide a more integrated environment for engineers. Future work will focus on data integration, semantics, artificial intelligence, and enhancing engineering methods.

1. Sailing the V:
Engineering digitalization through task
automation and reuse in the development
lifecycle
Jose María Alvarez & Juan Llorens | UC3M & TRC | {josemaria.alvarez, llorens}@uc3m.es

2. Introduction
The lifecycle

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ProSTEP IS 2021
Sailing the V: engineering digitalization
Lifecycle management: the Future of Systems Engineering
Source: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340649785_AI4SE_and_SE4AI_A_Research_Roadmap

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Sailing the V: engineering digitalization
Mats Berglund (Ericsson)
http://www.ices.kth.se/upload/events/13/84404189f85d41a6a7d1cafd0d
b4ee80.pdf
Engineering (and corporate) environment
Lifecycle processes
ISO 15288:2015
Digitalization of the lifecycle: Internet of Tools
Source: https://www.nist.gov/system/files/documents/2019/04/05/14_delp.pdf

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Source: Boeing
Sailing the V: engineering digitalization
Lifecycle evolution

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Sailing the V: engineering digitalization
Potential needs to digitalize the V
Automation
Requirement identification and generation
Model population
Documentation and compliance
Traceability
Recovery traces
Consistency checking
Management
MBSE
Integration and exchange
Link logical (descriptive) →physical (analytical)
Reuse
Simulation
Configuration
Orchestration
Link
V&V
Quality (CCC)
Information sharing with providers
Configuration Management
Evolution and information sharing

7. The approach
Knowledge-Centric
Systems Engineering

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Sailing the V: engineering digitalization
Concept: a knowledge management strategy

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Sailing the V: engineering digitalization
Sailing V: defining the ground truth
01 Controlled Organizational and
Project Vocabulary for a common
understanding among stakeholders
Vocabulary / Terminology
02 Relate the terms in different
way representing semantic
relationships:
- Relationships between terms
(Thesaurus)
- Clusters of Terms
Terms Relationships
04 Information about how can
the text being matched by
the patterns be represented
using graphs
Formalization
03 Represent text structures in a
way it is possible to do Pattern
Matching within the text
Textual Patterns
05 A combination of rules,
tasks and groups to infer
information from existing
text
Reasoning Info

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Sailing the V: engineering digitalization
E.g. Support smart artifact authoring (requirements)

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Sailing the V: engineering digitalization
Sailing the V: domain artifacts management and exploitation
Input artifact
(and tool)
Tool j
Transformation
rules
System
Knowledge
Base
SRL
(engineering
knowledge graph)
Linking: data, information &
knowledge
Text
SysML
Modelica
Simulink
…
Transformation
rules
Text
SysML
Modelica
Simulink
…
Output artifact
(and tool)
System
Knowledge
Base
Tool k
System Assets
Store

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Sailing the V: engineering digitalization
TRC ecosystem: capabilities and tools within the H2020-AHTOOLs project

13. User stories
5 user stories in Action

14. “That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for engineering”
Requirements
Engineering
As requirements engineer
I want to identify and
extract requirements
from legacy documents.
So that I can automate
requirements population.
MBSE &
Requirements
As domain engineer
I want to populate models
from requirements.
So that I can keep
consistency over time and
make my system artifacts
executable.
Keep data links alive and
consistent.
Quality: V&V
As domain engineer
I want to check quality of
my system artifacts:
models, requirements, etc.
So that I can ensure high-
quality artifacts from
scratch reaching the CCC
objectives.
Reuse
As domain engineer
I want to exchange
information between
tools, find similar system
artifacts (e.g. models)
and recover traces.
So that I can reuse
existing knowledge
embedded in system
artifacts.
Digitalization of Engineering
As systems engineer
I want to have a human friendly
environment for the engineering
process.
So that I can share all information
and data with my colleagues in
different disciplines.

15. Identify and extract requirements from legacy documents
VIDEO-1

16. Model generation and exploitation
VIDEO-2 and VIDEO-2B

17. Quality: V & V
VIDEO-3

18. Reuse: finding models and recovering traces
VIDEO-4

19. Integration of system artifacts & document generation
VIDEO-5

20. Closing the stage
Conclusions
&
Future Directions

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Conclusions and Future work
Focus on data integration,
semantics, AI/ML
-Understanding of the knowledge
embedded in the system artifacts
FUSE
Automate
Trace
Models
Simulation
&
Quality
Key
Enablers
Focus on innovation
-Avoid manual tasks
-SMART tools for engineers
Focus on linking (knowledge graph)
-Recover
-Manage
-Exploit
Focus on integration
-Model management & population
-Model exchange & execution
-Link different types of models
Focus on reuse and continuous
quality
-Link simulations
-Ensure quality over time
-Reuse system artifacts
-Standardization (interoperability)
-Configuration Management
-Tools and APIs
-Enhanced engineering methods:
AI/ML

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Sailing the V: engineering digitalization
Acknowledgements: TRC-KR team
The research leading to these results has received funding
from the H2020-ECSEL Joint Undertaking (JU) under grant
agreement No 826452-“Arrowhead Tools for Engineering of
Digitalisation Solutions” and from specific national programs
and/or funding authorities.
Learn more: https://www.amass-ecsel.eu/

23. Thank you for
your attention!
Jose María Álvarez-Rodríguez
Josemaria.alvarez@uc3m.es
@chema_ar
Take a seat and
comment with us!
Juan Llorens
llorens@inf.uc3m.es
https://www.reusecompany.com/ http://www.kr.inf.uc3m.es/