5.6.2 Attribute‐Oriented Modeling Approach and Its Application to Modeling of Spacecraft Functions

Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) uses models as a central and governing role in the specification, design, integration, validation, and operation of a system. If models are used in the development of a system, it can reduce ambiguity of information that exists in the document-based methodology and facilitate sharing of engineering information among different participants involved in the development of the system. There are standard languages like the Unified Modeling Language (UML) or the Systems Modeling Language (SysML) and software tools that facilitate developing of models. One of the problems in MBSE is that it is usually the case that different engineers come up with different models even if the same system is modeled and a standard language like UML or SysML is used. This is because there is no standard that specifies what kinds of components in the system should be represented with what kinds of standard modeling elements defined in UML or SysML. In order to solve this problem, this paper proposes a new approach to modeling of systems. This approach is called the “Attribute-Oriented Modeling (AOM)” approach. The AOM should be used with a standard modeling language like UML or SysML, not instead of them. The central concept of AOM is that types of model elements used in models of systems should be defined with a set of attributes that the system components to be modeled possess. By using this approach, a system is always modeled in the same way no matter who models the system. Furthermore, by using the fact that systems in a particular domain are always modeled in the same way, we can develop generic application programs that can process any model in that domain. This will further promote the utilization of MBSE.