"Smart Systems Engineering" (SmartSE)

Task and objective

In order to speed up the development of complex mechatronic systems and save on costs, these systems are increasingly being backed up virtually. Since development is usually distributed over a reasonably long supply chain, simulation processes and data formats need to be standardized so that simulation models and other information relevant for simulations can be exchanged between different partners and used in different tools. The Smart Systems Engineering (SmartSE) project group has set itself the aim of developing application-related concepts for cross-enterprise collaboration in simulation-based systems engineering. To this end, it develops recommendations for process design and pursues standards for the collaborative development of complex mechatronic systems.
The SmartSE project group comprises participants from approximately 30 companies and research institutes, including both user companies and software vendors. Over the years, it has been instrumental in improving the FMI (Functional Mockup Interface) standard and establishing it as the industry standard for simulation model exchange.

Focus and concrete results

The SmartSE project entered its current and fifth phase in 2022. This phase involves expanding the focus from bidirectional collaboration with two partners to include collaborative development with multiple partners while at the same time addressing new topics such as the compatibility of systems engineering and agile methods.
The focus of the work performed remains the development of best practices for simulation-based systems engineering in collaborative development processes, which benefits all the partners. One concrete result of the work carried out over the last two years is a new V-model, which expands the development process to include the aspect customer requirements on the left-hand side and aspects utilization and recycling on the right-hand side. What is special about it is that only the basic elements are shown and the model can be expanded to include individual perspectives, much like a template. For example, an extended mapping that localizes the standards in the model can be created. Or a representation that focuses on modeling, simulation and testing can be created by refining the aspects development and validation.
Another result is publication of the MIC Core Release 1 (Model Identity Card). It is a free standard that defines a set of model metadata attributes harmonized across multiple standards and projects such as System X. The aim is to make the easy and efficient exchange of simulation models between different companies possible by dividing the metadata into two parts: a uniform part that is harmonized across the standards and an individual part for the respective standard or domain.

Organizational and technical challenges

Now that the government-funded SET Level project for the verification and validation of highly-automated driving functions has been completed, the Credible Simulation Process Framework defined as part of the project has been handed over to the SmartSE project group. The challenge now is to expand the processes in a way that ensures the execution and traceability of the simulations and the simulation results throughout the supply chain. This requires, among other things, expanding the SSP standard to include the mapping of standardized simulation processes (SSP traceability).

Planning for the current year 2024

During the course of the current year, the SmartSE project group will continue to develop best practices for simulation-based systems engineering in cross-enterprise development processes involving multiple partners. Core topics for the various work packages include a reliable simulation process and the harmonization of metadata to ensure the quality of the simulation, the handling of different modeling and abstraction approaches when using simulations, the combination of systems engineering and agile methods, and expanding the V-model to include information relevant to standards, engineering artifacts and development approaches. The general focus of the project will be to create these best practices as executable showcases or demonstrators that are based on open standards and to make them available to the project group for use, further development and feedback. These showcases should also be made available to other prostep ivip projects and support harmonization between the prostep ivip projects.

What the project coordinator says:

"SmartSE has made great progress on many content-specific issues this year and we look forward to bringing the project to a close next year with a good result. We are also looking forward to the follow-up on topics such as 'the harmonization of standards' and 'modeling and abstraction' next year."

What the project manager says:

"We would like to see this active participation continue with fruitful discussions on the focal issues we are addressing in phase five of the project. For example, the interesting question of how we evaluate the quality of simulation results, how we deal with different levels of abstraction in simulation and how a balance between the V-model and agile methods can be achieved."