Digital Thread in Automotive and Transportation

Challenges

Few industries are undergoing as massive and rapid a technological revolution as the automobile industry with the development of autonomous vehicles. This is in combination with high mix, high volume production, extended international supply chains, and ever-increasing regulatory involvement in mileage, emissions, safety and other issues. In many respects, these same issues affect the rest of the transportation network, including high-speed railway and urban public transportation, which is beginning to converge with private vehicle usage in unexpected ways. This primarily drives the need for a Digital Thread and Digital Twin.

The Role of MBSE

Because of these challenges, automotive engineers have been leaders in developing and adopting advanced techniques in MBSE. Their engineering tool needs include an architectural framework inclusive of structure, behavior, requirements and analysis with cross-vendor and cross-discipline interoperability. They look for traceability between market, technological and regulatory requirements and vehicle design and function. They look for a systematic approach to product line engineering incorporating requirements, design and analysis. In particular, they look for ways to investigate vehicles, especially autonomous vehicles, in the context of larger systems: smart roads, fuel/energy distribution, and larger transportation networks.

How Intercax can help?

Automotive engineers have relied heavily on PLM, CAD and requirements management tools. Increasingly, software configuration management and simulation is added to this mix. Syndeia provides a platform for connecting these tools and providing all disciplines visibility of the total system model.

SysML parametrics can be used to setup a wide range of analyses of the automotive system architecture starting from the conceptual design phase, such as mass roll-ups, cost calculations, performance analyses, and requirement verification. Our SysML parametric solvers (ParaMagic, Melody, Solvea, ParaSolver) can solve advanced parametric models and perform trade studies on system architecture.

Intercax has helped train over 4000 new users in MBSE and SysML, with special emphasis on hands-on mastery of modeling and simulation. Organizations with thousands of engineers that need to build their capabilities rapidly can benefit from Intercax’s experience with the MBSE leaders in automotive and transportation.

Resources

Intercax has published a Technote recently on MBSE for the Automotive Industry, with special emphasis on hybrid powertrains. A SysML model is available for download.

Technote: Applications of MBE to Automotive Engineering

SysML model: 

MagicDraw model: Hybrid_Vehicle_Example.mdzip

Blog posts: