Automating Verification and Validation Processes Through Model Based Systems Engineering

This research aims to develop a systematic methodology for Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) driven qualitative and quantitative system verification. MBSE refers to formalised methodology for supporting requirement engineering, system design, analysis and verification and validation through leveraging system models described in languages such as the OMG SysML. SysML is one of system modelling languages that can be used to develop a system architecture making majority of parametric and behavioural specifications of a System Architecture Model (SAM) simulatable and executable. This allows for carrying out trade studies, model-based testing and model checking, automated generation of system interfaces, test cases and other artifacts important for the system verification and validation.

Madni and Sievers, 2018 highlight the role of MBSE in reducing the development time and error rates through eliminating design flaws and evaluating design and implementation suitability at early development stages and whether the system can meet stakeholder needs and requirements as discussed by Bachelor et al 2020. Model-based Verification and Validation (V&V) can therefore mitigate several shortcomings of a more traditional document-based systems engineering process.

The objectives to deliver this research project are:

1. To review current state-of-the-art MBSE and V&V practices used across different industries as well as at AVL to understand both industry (automotive) wide and AVL's specific requirements
2. To develop a systematic approach for a product-description driven system model quality assessment to understand the model's maturity, completeness, and correctness and to identify available artefacts for verification and validation activities
3. To develop a systematic approach for model-based testing including test case generation, export and execution based on the model description and quality gateways
4. To assess the role of a human in the developed automated V&V process to abstract complexity and increase workflow efficiency for end users
5. To identify system and process boundaries of the new methodology developed in obj. 2 - obj. 4 to propose deployment strategy in the organisation for integration of the new methodology within existing toolchain infrastructure

The increased adoption of digital-modelling environments has resulted in the increase of adoption of MBSE as means of managing the system complexity of cyber-physical systems. Its promised benefits have however been predominantly explored in academic and research environments and its real-world application is still behind due to its rigorous and labour-intensive nature.
The project's potential impacts and applications are therefore identified as follows:
Exploit the benefits of an MBSE approach within the constraints of an industrial, real-world environment
Provide systematic model assessment approach with respect to completeness, correctness and maturity
Frontload V&V activities through MBSE to eliminate issues in early stages of development
Provide guideline on managing the complexity and traceability of the development and verification of cyber-physical systems thus improving time to market

This research is relevant to the UKRI EPSRC's Manufacturing the Future and Engineering Themes as it focuses on applying MBSE to enhance V&V activities potentially resulting in increased product quality, reduced development costs and enhanced traceability for product lifecycle assessment.

Impact Summary

This proposal has been developed from the ground up to guarantee the highest level of impact. The two principal routes towards impact are via the graduates that we train and by the embedding of the research that is undertaken into commercial activity. The impact will have a significant commercial value through addressing skills requirements and providing technical solutions for the automotive industry - a key sector for the UK economy.

The graduates that emerge from our CDT (at least 84 people) will be transformative in two distinct ways. The first is a technical route and the second is cultural.

In a technical role, their deep subject matter expertise across all of the key topics needed as the industry transitions to a more sustainable future. This expertise is made much more accessible and applicable by their broad understanding of the engineering and commercial context in which they work. They will have all of the right competencies to ensure that they can achieve a very significant contribution to technologies and processes within the sector from the start of their careers, an impact that will grow over time. Importantly, this CDT is producing graduates in a highly skilled sector of the economy, leading to jobs that are £50,000 more productive per employee than average (i.e. more GVA). These graduates are in demand, as there are a lack of highly skilled engineers to undertake specialist automotive propulsion research and fill the estimated 5,000 job vacancies in the UK due to these skills shortages. Ultimately, the CDT will create a highly specialised and productive talent pipeline for the UK economy.

The route to impact through cultural change is perhaps of even more significance in the long term. Our cohort will be highly diverse, an outcome driven by our wide catchment in terms of academic background, giving them a 'diversity edge'. The cultural change that is enabled by this powerful cohort will have a profound impact, facilitating a move away from 'business as usual'.

The research outputs of the CDT will have impact in two important fields - the products produced and processes used within the indsutry. The academic team leading and operating this CDT have a long track record of generating impact through the application of their research outputs to industrially relevant problems. This understanding is embodied in the design of our CDT and has already begun in the definition of the training programmes and research themes that will meet the future needs of our industry and international partners. Exchange of people is the surest way to achieve lasting and deep exchange of expertise and ideas. The students will undertake placements at the collaborating companies and will lead to employment of the graduates in partner companies.

The CDT is an integral part of the IAAPS initiative. The IAAPS Business Case highlights the need to develop and train suitably skilled and qualified engineers in order to achieve, over the first five years of IAAPS' operations, an additional £70 million research and innovation expenditure, creating an additional turnover of £800 million for the automotive sector, £221 million in GVA and 1,900 new highly productive jobs.

The CDT is designed to deliver transformational impact for our industrial partners and the automotive sector in general. The impact is wider than this, since the products and services that our partners produce have a fundamental part to play in the way we organise our lives in a modern society. The impact on the developing world is even more profound. The rush to mobility across the developing world, the increasing spending power of a growing global middle class, the move to more urban living and the increasingly urgent threat of climate change combine to make the impact of the work we do directly relevant to more people than ever before. This CDT can help change the world by effecting the change that needs to happen in our industry.