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Periodic Reporting for period 3 - PJ22 SEabird (PJ22:Validation and Demonstration Engineering)

Teaser

The aim of PJ22 “System Engineering for Validation and Demonstration” (SEabird) is to address one of the Transversal Activities of SESAR 2020 Program, specifically Validation & Demonstration Engineering. Taking on board the recommendations or needs for improvement coming...

Summary

The aim of PJ22 “System Engineering for Validation and Demonstration” (SEabird) is to address one of the Transversal Activities of SESAR 2020 Program, specifically Validation & Demonstration Engineering. Taking on board the recommendations or needs for improvement coming from SESAR 1 experience, PJ22 focuses on three main problems.

1. Requirement Management:
In SESAR 1, the delivery of information to SJU were typically captured via Word templates requiring significant effort to extract the information and insufficient to guarantee the usability for the SESAR Community. In SESAR 2020 the demand was for PJ22 to provides a web based platform for Requirements Management to capture data in a structured way and allow consistency and coherence:
The following macro objective, are linked to the provision of the SE-DMF:
- the management of the information produced by the SESAR solution projects, with regards to the System Engineering Data Management and the Deliverable production.
- the provision of training and SE-DMF support service
- the management of a V&V Platform Catalogue to be available for the projects
- the support to Solution Maturity Gates in terms of provision semi-automatic reports
2. Maintenance of a Common reference methodology for V&V Platform Development
In SESAR 1 the application of an engineering methodology, for development of verification and validation platforms, was optionally mandated to the primary projects, leading to a different level of information available across the Programme.
In SESAR 2020 PJ22 worked to maintain and improve a common and reference development methodology with high-level guidance and specific recommendations on the Platforms development process to be undertaken by SESAR projects. The following macro objectives are fixed:
- to provide engineering process with instruction and expected inputs and outputs to be undertaken while executing the development of the V&V platform.
- to train SESAR Platform developers
- to identify a minimum set of technical evidences that can be captured in the relevant platform availability note(s).

3. Communalization of validation tools and interoperability solutions
IN SESAR 1 it was of interest to identify a set of strategic common tools and interoperability solutions that could improve the SESAR 2020 validation process. PJ22 works on the topic stimulating the SESAR solutions teams with the objectives to:
- identify and select strategic validation tools and interoperability solutions,
- produce technical specifications, interoperability requirements and conformance criteria applicable for the different simulators and tools

Work performed

Work performed and results achieved are described per key area:
System Engineering Data Management:
The SE-DMF has been defined, set-up and delivered for operational use. It consists of a collaborative web based platform which allows Solutions to share and manage SE data (requirements, objectives, results) in a structured way, in line with guidelines and templates provided by SJU.
A set of 200+ users have been trained, and provided with material (User Manual, video tutorials, presentations) available on a dedicated website. 81 Solutions have been supported and more than 400 users logged into the system.
The SE-DMF maintenance (at infrastructure and application level) has been performed, including ad-hoc technical intervention requests on specific solutions and dedicated support service by means of Help Desk.
A synchronization mechanism has been defined in coordination with PJ19 in order to perform a periodic alignment of the EATMA elements (as defined into MEGA) into SE-DMF tool, with some difficulties in the final process implementation.
Support to SESAR Solution Maturity Gates providing dashboards and material (Gate support documents);
Implementation of V&V Platform Catalogue with 36 requests for inclusion of 50 new Platforms were handled.

Maintenance of the V&VP, V&VI and Demonstration Platform Methodology:
The Platform Methodology has been made available to the Projects (in total 4 versions); each version was enriched with valuable content, developed considering WP3 expertise, SESAR projects’ input (feedback) and consultations with WG81.
Training has been organized for SESAR Platform developers with a total of 52 persons registered.
Methodology application surveys were launched.
To ensure quality updates of the Platform Methodology as well as to mitigate the risk of insufficient feedback through ‘mass’ communication dedicated initiatives were organized to collect needed input

Communalization of validation tools and interoperability solution: main results are

• Specification of a cheap V&VI interoperability solution,
• Specification of a tool to generate automatically physical service payloads from their logical definitions developed in EATMA
• Proposal of various improvements to the EUROCAE standard ED-147/148 which are now packaged in a new version of the standard that is about to be published in support to SESAR W2

Final results

The following conclusions for potential impact can be summarized per each key activity:

System Engineering Data Management.

After an initial ramp-up and consolidation phase, the maturity of the tool can be recognised at operating phase. The adoption of the tool shows an increasing trend. More than 500 accounts were created. Over 200 users took part to training sessions.
Users have largely taken advantage and appreciated the support provided by means of help desk service and of direct coaching actions.
The Platform Catalogue could represent an added value for the Programme, providing a clear overlook of the usage of the Platforms throughout the Programme.
On the synchronization mechanism between PJ22 and PJ19, despite the long teamwork between the two project, there were deviations with respect to the agreed process, complications in the exchange of data, and necessity to de-scope the activity (due to the huge amount of data).

Maintenance of the Platform Development Methodology.

SESAR Projects do need a Methodology to perform their Platform Development activities in efficient way and mitigate issues during Exercises, and therefore, PJ22 Platform Methodology should be considered as valuable support, even if there is no clear evidence on what degree it was applied.
During program timeframe, Projects received big quantities of mandatory and non-mandatory guidance and supporting material which caused some confusion among them, and optional documents like the Platform Methodology might look excessive. The situation could be simplified by prompt presentation and explanations at Program level.

Communalization of validation tools and interoperability solutions.

The identification of common tools and interoperability solutions does not appear as a very successful initiative. The specifications aspect of common facilities does not raise a lot of interest from the Solution Projects. They do not really have any incentive in planning and developing tools (resources and budget) that are specified by another project, where they see additional risks to manage.
The collaboration between PJ22 and WG-81 has been efficient, and like with SESAR1, S2020 remains a key driver of the ED-147 contents. All the PJ22 proposals were mature enough and well aligned with WG-81 expectations to be integrated without significant amendment.

Website & more info

More info: https://www.se-dmf.eu/.