SysML Customization for Assisted Low Earth Orbit Design Space Exploration

This study addresses workshop objective O2; limitations of current MBSE approaches and ways to circumvent or resolve these. Exploration of the design space and performing trade-offs can be complex and
time consuming. While MBSE has been shown to effectively address communication issues between engineers, most MBSE tools focus only on describing a baseline design with little provision for the variability modelling that is
required for rapid iteration and exploration. This study has explored the use of a new SysML profile for design space exploration that assists the designer in generating and assessing new designs through interactive visualizations
and analysis. The profile makes use of different techniques to assist the designer such as surrogate modelling and generative design. The profile can be used in traditional MBSE models and currently makes use of Cameo
Simulation Toolkit to evaluate many different design alternatives and visualize the design space. Preliminary results of the study show that the profile can provide assistance in selecting parameter values for a system design and
visualise multi objective optimisation problems with suggestions of optimal design points. Currently the profile is limited to only parameter value variation, but further work will extend this to higher levels of variability. It is hoped
that this work will provide a valuable extension to the way MBSE is used in allowing it to become a design space exploration tool.