A SysML based methodology for manufacturing system modeling and design

This paper describes a modeling methodology to support the design process of complex systems. The main challenge in modern industrial applications is the sheer volume of data involved in the design process. While using high-level abstraction is necessary to manage this data and analyze the system “as a whole,” designers need also to retain all the low-level information of the system, in order to be able to perform optimizations and modifications at later times. The solution proposed here is to use a hierarchy of models, each one describing the system at different levels of abstraction, and arrange them in such a way that it is possible to easily “map” each level onto the others. The topmost layer of the system description is expressed in System Modeling Language, a general-purpose modeling language based on Unified Modeling Language.