NASA SBIR Phase I 2021 Project: Fault Management Analysis for Model-Centric Systems Engineering Tools (CAESAR)
November 19, 2021
This was a SBIR Phase I 6-month project with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory that included early technical development to determine the feasibility of the innovation.
Why the Innovation is Important to NASA
Okean Solutions responded to Topic S5.05 Fault Management Technologies.
This is a broad topic covering innovations to Fault Management (FM) design and implementation for NASA’s spacecraft programs.
The goal is to provide a system capability for management of future spacecraft, including onboard and offboard or ground-based components. Offboard components such as modeling techniques and tools, development environments, and verification and validation (V&V) technologies are needed, provided they contribute to novel or capable on-board fault management.
Our Approach
Okean Solutions’ proposal responded to the need for new technologies to effectively manage and streamline complex fault management (FM) systems, enable rapid diagnostic model generation and validation, and provide tools to assess FM quality/performance e.g., fault containment regions (FCRs) and false positive/negative (FP/FN) rates.
We proposed to improve FM system modeling and analysis by integrating our MONSID® model-based fault management tool/system with JPL’s Computer Aided Engineering for Systems Architecture (CAESAR) platform, thereby creating greater visibility into the FM process and lowering the barriers to entry for users who are not FM experts. The combined capability would advance the practice of FM to ultimately decrease labor and schedule costs while ensuring FM system robustness and appropriateness.
While the main application is FM design and software development, it could also be used in integration and test (I&T) and operations phases to update onboard FM models and in support of recovery operations.
Project Objectives
Objectives included:
- Reduction of FM model development time through automation
- Visibility into MONSID FM capabilities and analyses
- Prototype a MONSID-CAESAR adapter
- Generate a MONSID model topology from CAESAR output in a format ingestible by the MONSID Toolkit web app
Accomplishments
The Phase I program successfully achieved objectives by completing the following:
- Designed adapter to automate MONSID model creation
- Created model topology from system model artifacts within CAESAR
- Leveraged tool and APIs already in use (OWL query and R scripts)
- Validated approach with a fluid system model based on Europa Clipper Heat Reclamation System
- Demonstrated time savings with adaptor over manual model development
- Created a new vocabulary to capture fluid system assemblies and interfaces as a potential prototype for including into JPL existing vocabularies.
Potential NASA Applications
A MONSID adaptor for CAESAR could support FM development in current and future programs, providing rapid model development and improving the accuracy and efficiency of FM systems analyses. It is applicable to a broad range of NASA missions that leverage model-based systems engineering tools. Such missions include CubeSats (Lunar Flashlight, SunRISE), Trident, Mars Sample Return, and others from near-Earth to interplanetary, risk-adverse, and experimental.
Potential Non-NASA Applications
The ultimate goal of the SBIR program is to fund and facilitate commercialization.
MONSID and CAESAR are both model-based and application agnostic. The combination of these tools makes it applicable to a wide variety of Department of Defense (DoD), European Space Agency (ESA), Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) and commercial programs. This innovation can be adapted to other modeling environments to streamline and accelerate FM design and development practices. Industries including aerospace, automotive, and chemical can all benefit from this technology. The adapter has potential applications to many government and commercial organizations utilizing model-centric engineering systems such as openCAESAR. A fully featured adapter can be tailored to commercial and custom databases using common open source and internal tools.
Technical and Business Assistance (TABA)
This project included a TABA component. The aim of the SBIR TABA program is to improve the commercialization success of SBIR awardees by funding work related to commercial potential, commercial intent, commercial capability, and intellectual property, including assistance and mentoring.
Examples of such work include quantitative market analysis, market research, market validation, and evaluation of the competitive landscape, including potential competitors and barriers to entry; identifying competitive advantage, evaluation of target customers and collaborative partnerships, challenges and opportunities for the proposed innovation, current uses and potential, differentiators and benefits, pricing and capacity, channels of distribution, and development of regulatory plans and manufacturing plans.
TABA Deliverables Created
This project included a TABA component. The aim of the SBIR TABA program is to improve the commercialization success of SBIR awardees by funding work related to commercial potential, commercial intent, commercial capability, and intellectual property, including assistance and mentoring.
Examples of such work include quantitative market analysis, market research, market validation, and evaluation of the competitive landscape, including potential competitors and barriers to entry; identifying competitive advantage, evaluation of target customers and collaborative partnerships, challenges and opportunities for the proposed innovation, current uses and potential, differentiators and benefits, pricing and capacity, channels of distribution, and development of regulatory plans and manufacturing plans.
- Competitor and potential partners research, including SBIR FM-project review and analysis
- Business model evaluation; planning for enhanced competitive advantage and optimizing channels of distribution
- IP evaluation and planning
- Identified future work, including planning additional SBIR evaluation and analysis
- The Commercialization and Business Plan for Phase II
Such work helps to inform future development direction and promotion of Okean Solutions, MONSID and model-based FM in general to both technical and non-technical audiences. The result will be an increase in awareness, adoption and potential collaboration with the ultimate goal of increased opportunities for more significant mission infusion.
