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An Evaluation of Three Commercially Available Integrated Design Framework Packages for Use in the Space Systems Design Lab
Andrew Thomas Scott
April 26, 2001
Introduction
In the design of any complex system, it's customary to find that the decomposition of such a system divides the analysis of the problem into several smaller sections that focus on applicable engineering disciplines. This approach to design has not only been well established but, for very large systems, is the only realistically feasible direction to take. Unfortunately, it is extremely rare to find a problem that can be divided in such a way that the inputs and outputs of the disciplinary analyses do not heavily rely on one another. Because of the natural coupling that will arise between different disciplines, the design problem requires not only the system level requirements are met, but also that the results of each discipline are consistent with one another. The Space Systems Design Lab (SSDL) within the Georgia Institute of Technology does a wide variety of conceptual space-vehicle design using several in-house-developed disciplinary analysis tools and industry standard legacy codes. In order to improve the efficiency and level of design done in the lab, use of three commercially available integrated design framework packages is investigated and evaluated. These packages are Phoenix Integration's ModelCenter, Engenious Software's iSIGHT, and Technosoft's AML. In this evaluation, consideration is given to a wide variety of criteria addressing the needs of the SSDL and key functionality of the software.
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