JR Centre for Dependable System-of-Systems Engineering

In the development of software-intensive systems, increasing complexity due to new technologies and increasing networking is a central challenge. This JR Centre researches model-based methods that enable the realisation of reliable, complex systems.

Cyber-physical systems play a key role in various application domains such as automotive, smart grid, smart city or Industry 4.0. The direct interaction with the physical world implies strict requirements for reliable operation. Technical innovations and increasing networking are leading to an increase in the complexity of such systems, which makes it more difficult to gain a holistic understanding and the question of reliability can no longer be answered simply. In addition, such systems can form system-of-systems across domain boundaries (e.g. integration of electric vehicles with the power grid), which poses further challenges due to different terminology, concepts and methods in the respective domains. For the development of reliable cyber-physical systems and their integration into higher-level system-of-systems, the question of holistic development methods that enable reliability "by design" must be answered.

To answer this question, this JR Centre is initially researching and developing domain-specific, model-based development methods for the four application domains Automotive, Smart Grid, Smart City and Industry 4.0. In addition to enabling a holistic understanding of the system, the focus here is on the integration of reliability "by design".

In a subsequent consolidation step, the different approaches are compared with the aim of deriving a generic approach that enables interoperability and compatibility between the domains. The results are brought together in a "Model Based Systems Engineering" (MBSE) framework - with a modelling tool as the central component.

Consolidating the work from the individual domains creates interoperability and compatibility between design models from the individual domains. On this basis, models of the charging behaviour of electric vehicles ("Automotive") can be integrated with models of the power grid ("Smart Grid"), for example. One possible application scenario for this is, for example, the analysis of emergent behaviour caused by simultaneity effects when simultaneously charging a large number of electric vehicles.

On the basis of this foundation, which enables the virtual integration of cyber-physical systems into a system-of-systems, further aspects relating to the design, validation and realisation of system-of-systems can be researched and provide approaches for the realisation of "reliability".