A Modeling Method for Representation of Geographical Information of a System-of-Systems

Due to the increasing interest in Systems-of-Systems (SoSs) and SoS engineering (SoSE), a considerable number of model-based SoSE methods have been actively researched in recent years. Since a constituent of an SoS may not be originally designed to constitute a higher-level organization or SoS, the integration of distributed independent constituents is a crucial SoSE activity. However, the distribution poses challenges for SoSE because this characteristic inevitably increases uncertainties that can largely influence constituents' behaviors and interactions. Therefore, this uncertain distribution should be systematically modeled and simulated and a geographical map (GeoMap) should be appropriately embedded in a simulation model as a fundamental simulation object. However, existing simulation techniques do not concentrate on geographical features; they only focus on the structural and behavioral aspects of models. To support the modeling and simulation of the geographical features of an SoS, this study proposes a modeling method that flexibly represents geographical information. On the basis of SoS-specific characteristics, our method provides a scalable modeling technique for building, updating, and managing a GeoMap for simulation. An open-sourced project, called GeoMapBuilder-for-SoS, is developed to simulate the geographically distributed entities of an SoS and demonstrate the applicability and feasibility of the proposed modeling method.