WICI Course - Simulation-Based Engineering of Complex Systems
Simulation-Based Engineering of Complex Systems
This introduction treats complex systems as interacting, concurrent processes and introduces a method, a graphical system description language, and a computer-aided design tool for analyzing them. It demonstrates the effectiveness of the approach through several illustrative examples.
The toolset used, ExtendSim with the OpEMCSS library, gives systems practitioners the ability to experiment with complex, context-sensitive interactions and quickly build a model. The emphasis is on complex systems design, analysis, and evaluation rather than on programming details or writing extensive code.
ExtendSim + OpEMCSS can be used in any field that is concerned with entities that perform a set of tasks that lead to satisfaction of a measurable goal that may or may not be explicitly known or stated. Such fields include project management, systems engineering, software engineering, industrial engineering, business organizations, societal systems and sociology, biological and ecological systems, economic systems, and others. Thus, this tutorial is designed for a broad spectrum of people who wish to gain an understanding of complex systems and MBSE. It will be shown that, although complex systems have behaviors that are often difficult to understand, the underlying ExtendSim +OpEMCSS modeling building blocks comprising a complex system model are simple and easy to understand.
This course is structured so that while it will be relevant to advanced practitioners, no particular technical background is required. The only prerequisite is a strong capacity for problem solving. As such it is an excellent introduction for those new to complex systems modeling.
It follows a lecture on “Simulation-Based Engineering of Complex Systems” on Wednesday, October 6.
Longer Description
A description of a new, proven way for engineering complex, adaptive systems is presented, consisting of a method, a graphical system description language, a computer-aided design tool, and several illustrative examples. Study of a large number of complex systems during the last 40 years by Dr Clymer and others, including computer, transportation, manufacturing, business, and military systems, has shown that complex systems are best characterized as a set of interacting, concurrent processes. This discovery inspired the development of Context Sensitive Systems (CSS) theory, based on mathematical linguistics and automata theory, as a way of thinking about complex systems using interacting concurrent processes. During the 1968-1971 time-frame, Dr. Clymer developed a graphical modeling language, Operational Evaluation Modeling (OpEM), to express CSS models of both existing and conceptual systems. During the same time period, an alternative approach, Petri nets, was developed independently of OpEM. Subsequently, after 20 years of using procedure oriented simulation programs to design and evaluate complex systems, a graphical, object-oriented, discrete event simulation library, OpEMCSS, was developed that works with ExtendSim (Imagine That Inc.) to enable rapid development of CSS models and simulations in the OpEM language.
Since an OpEMCSS simulation is an abstract description of a complex system, understanding how the simulation works assists the systems engineer in understanding how the complex system works, allowing the system design to be optimized to meet stakeholder requirements. In this tutorial, it is shown that CSS theory, OpEM modeling language, and OpEMCSS library can be applied to understand Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) and to perform Model-Based Systems Engineering.
Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) mitigates system development problems (resulting from “stove-piped systems” design methods) that are caused by the failure to optimize the interoperability and synergisms among all component algorithms and methods at the overall system level. Further, the interactions of the system with its external systems and the dynamic demands of the operational environment on the system must be included in a MBSE system level model and evaluated for tradeoffs.
An OpEMCSS system level model provides the structure and ontology (top level formalisms) needed to connect detailed component models for MBSE. The MBSE approach presented in this tutorial is: (1) apply the OpEM top-down systems design methodology, (2) perform system concept and top level design tradeoffs to optimize stakeholder requirements using OpEMCSS, (3) produce a systems design specification that includes component interface and qualification system requirements using a design capture database tool, (4) develop component detailed models of alternative component algorithms and methods using the OpEMCSS special blocks, (5) perform virtual systems integration and system Verification & Validation (V&V) using the system level OpEMCSS simulation, and (6) determine impact of requirements changes and conduct detailed design trades using the system level OpEMCSS simulation.
The OpEMCSS graphical simulation library works with the popular commercial software tool, ExtendSim (www.ImagineThatInc.com), which was chosen for two major reasons. First of all, ExtendSim is relatively inexpensive for people to buy and use. Further, the ExtendSim DEMO program is available free from Imagine That Inc.
The OpEMCSS icon-blocks automatically provide more than 95% of all simulation code that in the past had to be programmed by hand. In context-sensitive systems, these programming details are very complex and would otherwise require extensive programming skill and effort to accomplish. ExtendSim, with the OpEMCSS library, gives systems practitioners the ability to experiment with complex, context-sensitive interactions and quickly build a model. Time is not wasted dealing with complex programming details and writing extensive code, but rather the emphasis is on complex systems design, analysis, and evaluation for MBSE.
ExtendSim +OpEMCSS can be used in any field that is concerned with entities that perform a set of tasks that lead to satisfaction of a measurable goal that may or may not be explicitly known or stated. Such fields include project management, systems engineering, software engineering, industrial engineering, business organizations, societal systems and sociology, biological and ecological systems, economic systems, and others. Thus, this tutorial is designed for a broad spectrum of people who wish to gain an understanding of complex systems and MBSE. It will be shown that, although complex systems have behaviors that are often difficult to understand, the underlying ExtendSim +OpEMCSS modeling building blocks comprising a complex system model are simple and easy to understand.
Speaker Profile: John R. Clymer
John R. Clymer obtained his Doctor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Arizona State University in 1971. He is an professor emeritus of electrical engineering at California State University Fullerton (CSUF). He consults on a regular basis in the area of systems engineering (mission analysis and conceptual systems design), simulation, and artificial intelligence. In addition to consulting, he has presented numerous lectures and technical courses throughout the United States and abroad. His expertise includes computer engineering, system control, continuous systems simulation, operational analysis and DES simulation, optimization and mathematical programming, and artificial intelligence (fuzzy logic and control, neural networks, and expert systems). Dr. Clymer's current research is focused in the area of intelligent-systems design, including multi-agent systems (SOS and NCO), and Simulation- Based Systems Engineering (SBSE) methods, applying integrated simulation, artificial intelligence, reinforcement learning, and evolutionary programming methods to advance the state of technology in those methods and the of SOS and NCO. He is a member in good standing of IEEE and INCOSE, and he is an INCOSE fellow.