System of Systems Engineering – Principles and Applications
Prof Mo Jamshidi, The University of Texas at San Antonio
Systems engineering is at a crossroad now at the beginning of the 21st Century. One of the main challenges of any paradigms in systems engineering is being able to handle complex systems under unforeseen uncertainties. A system may be called complex if its dimension (order) is too high and its model (if available) is nonlinear, interconnected, and information on the system is uncertain such that classical techniques cannot easily handle the problem. A system of systems (SoS) is a “super system,” or an integration of complex systems coordinated together in such a way to achieve a wider goal with possible higher significance. Applications of SoS are quite extensive – examples are future combat mission, Global Warming, Mars missions, Air Traffic System, Global Earth Observation System, Electric Power Grid System, Energy systems, etc. The challenges facing systems engineering in the 21st Century is that every aspect of systems engineering from architecture, modeling, simulation, identification, estimation, filtering, control, etc. need to be revisited from SoS engineering.
In this tutorial system of systems are being introduced, challenges are brought up and potential solutions and needs are discussed. Special emphasis on UTSA ACE Center’s SoS technology will be demonstrated. Some Animated and experimental implementation as well as media movies and clips will be shown.
Topics:
- Definitions and introduction
- Modeling and simulation
- Control of SoS
- Application areas – Defense, Energy, Environment, Transportation, etc.
- Application area 1 - Underwater rovers (UWVs)
- Applications area 2 - Land rovers (UGVs)
- Applications area 3 - Aerial rovers (UAVs)
- Future needs in SoS Engineering
- Media and movie clips
