Keynotes – IEEE SoSE 2019 Conference

Achieving Next-Level Robotic Intelligence with SoS Implications

Abstract: Recent advances have been effective for progressing the state of robotics toward its next level of intelligence. At this stage, further advancement is needed with sharper focus on increased robustness, cognitive facilities, and more sophisticated behavior. Research necessarily continues to focus on the study of intelligent robotics toward enabling an intelligence pipeline including abilities to perceive, reason, plan, act, control and learn. Advances to date are impacting individual elements of this intelligence pipeline but the paths to effective integration of these elements that will realize practical intelligent robots and robotic systems are unclear.

Thinking more broadly about intelligent robots as elements of larger systems, robotics technology is riding the same tsunami as AI, machine learning, and Internet of Things — all shaping up as elements within systems of systems. Robots will be nodes in IoT within intelligent homes and buildings including hotels and the workplace, in logistics environments, smart factories, and more. In many applications they will be dynamic physical nodes in a variety of cyber-physical systems. Beyond integration of technologies, additionally considering the human element brings the question of transdisciplinary solutions into the conversation. Robots with next-level intelligence will challenge the tools and methodologies being developed to engineer SoS in a number of ways.

This talk offers thoughts and considerations for active researchers to ponder and appreciate in the context of their research programs. From a perspective on current stages of technology development, and looking toward the progress horizon from that vista, the talk discusses a number of robotic intelligence topics using examples from research projects and deployed systems. Aspects of intelligent robotics associated with different domains and applications are discussed such as planetary robotics, disaster response, and wearable robotics. Also addressed are future considerations for the evolution of related technology toward increased robotic autonomy and advanced intelligence for robotic systems.

Motivating this discourse are multiple considerations for next-level robotic intelligence technology, including the need to realize smart behavior for not only singular robots but for multi-robot and human-collaborative systems, and some of the related systems engineering considerations. The aim is to broaden the thinking of current researchers leading to the collective leverage that will boost robotic intelligence to the next level enabling robots that are multi-functional in the real-world.

Dr. Edward Tunstel is an Associate Director of Robotics at United Technologies Research Center leading a Robotics Group focused on human-collaborative robotics spanning aerospace to building industries. He was a Senior Roboticist at Johns Hopkins APL researching robotic intelligence/autonomy, modular open systems, and human-collaborative robotics for national security and space applications; he also served as Space Robotics & Autonomous Control Lead. He was previously with NASA JPL as a Senior Robotics Engineer, Mars rover systems engineer for autonomous navigation, and rover engineering team lead for mobility and robotic arm operations on the surface of Mars. He maintains expertise in robotic autonomy and intelligent systems, in which he has authored over 150 publications. He is an IEEE Fellow, IEEE SMC Society President, and IEEE Robotics and Automation Society member holding a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from University of New Mexico and prior mechanical engineering degrees from Howard University.

Edward Tunstel

ieee smc society, president & United technologies research center

Understanding and Shaping the Future of System of Systems Engineering

Abstract: The expectations, characteristics, properties, and technical capabilities of our systems continue
to evolve. Systems today are highly interconnected, interdependent, and complex. It is hard to find a relevant system that is a stand-alone system, not interconnected to other systems or interacting in some significant way with other systems. And we expect the future environment to be much more dynamic with the System of Interest (SoI) playing different roles in different System of Systems (SoS’s) at different times with different durations and levels of participation. So, do all system solutions need to be viewed as System of System (SoS) solutions? Additionally, the increases in the functionality of our systems, as well as the level of technology adoption, has continued to outpace our practices to fully harness the technology and technically manage the Systems and SoS’s to our greatest advantage. The uptake of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Autonomy (and other technologies) will change the dynamics and relationships with other systems in the SoS through self-learning and self-adaptation. To manage future systems across their life cycles, we will need to evolve the systems designs, our engineering practices, and our workforce. System of Systems Engineering (SoSE) and Digital Engineering (DE) are elements of engineering that promise to provide fundamental capability that can enable decision makers to make well-informed decisions that consider numerous factors under various conditions and facilitate agility in the systems engineering practices throughout the life cycle. SoSE can help to account for the consideration required to make the system solution adaptable and able to interact with other systems under varied conditions. Digital Engineering can provide an integrated, digital, model-based engineering approach to drive a paradigm shift in the conceptualization, development, production, utilization, and support of systems to aid in addressing complexity, uncertainty and ongoing change in our systems.

This presentation will look at our current situation and how our environment has changed, providing an understanding of the challenges we are facing with some examples using specific technology areas. It will then look at how the Future of SE / SoSE and the use of DE as an enabler has been characterized in the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE) Systems Engineering Vision 2025. Finally, the presentation will provide a look at some of the work in progress to advance our processes, practices, and performance of SE and SoSE towards addressing those challenges.

Garry Roedler is a Senior Fellow and the Engineering Outreach Program Manager for Lockheed Martin and the President of the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE). He has over 33 years of systems engineering (SE) experience that spans the full life cycle and includes technical leadership roles in both programs and business functions. He is also an INCOSE Fellow, holds systems engineering certification at the Expert Systems Engineering Professional (ESEP) level, and received the INCOSE Founders Award. Garry has held key leadership roles in several industry associations and standards development organizations, including editor of ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288, Systems Life Cycle Processes and several other standards; and key editor roles for the Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge (SEBoK) and the INCOSE Systems Engineering Handbook. This unique set of roles has enabled Garry to influence the technical co-evolution and consistency of these key Systems Engineering and System of Systems resources.

Garry Roedler

INCOSE president, Lockheed Martin Senior Fellow

Cyber-Physical System of Systems: changing the game

Abstract: Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) are the key elements of the Forth Industrial Revolution ( Industry 4.0) that started in the early 2010s. Since that time the development has dramatically accelerated, increasing number of existing and distributed CPSs are integrated providing services that go beyond the services of any of its isolated CPSs forming Cyber-Physical Systems of Systems (CPSoS).

In the world of CPSoS a new type of Internet should connect any objects, any devices, any knowledge, any cyber-physical systems, any firms, companies, anyone, …i.e., anything! This is the basic idea of the term: Internet of Anything (IoA). Internet of Anything is the interconnection of any things (devices, systems, skills), anyone, anywhere and anytime within the existing Internet infrastructure.

Our research team investigates new ideas to connect distributed CPSs systems and system elements (sensors, actuators, control logic, intelligent machines, data logging and data mining) to each other and represents them in a Virtual World forming a general-purpose information pool, which allows for large-scale CPSoS. The presentation summarizes the results and ideas of the software engine developed by our team, called MAXWHERE that provides effective working environments with spatial (Virtual Reality) multimodal arrangement and intelligent connectivity.

The fundamental idea behind MAXWHERE is the generalization of the Document Object Model (DOM) introducing the Where Object Model (WOM) concept that covers the conventional WEB contents as well as the VR/AR building blocks in a coherent way empowered by the newest generation web APIs. Typical applications of MAXWHERE includes industrial monitoring and facility support, context-based collaborative working environment, industrial training, and Interactive live presentations.

Imre J. Rudas graduated from Bánki Donát Polytechnic, Budapest in 1971, received the Master Degree in Mathematics from the Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, the Ph.D. in Robotics from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1987, while the Doctor of Science degree from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 2004. He received Doctor Honoris Causa degree from the Technical University of Košice, Slovakia, from “Polytechnica” University of Timisoara, Romania, from Óbuda University, and from Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava. He was awarded by the Honorary Professor title in 2013 and Ambassador Title in 2015 and 2018 by Wroclaw University of Science and Technology. He is active as a full university professor, Rudolf Kalman Distinguished Professor and Head of the Steering Committee of the University Research, Innovation and Service Center, Óbuda University, Budapest. He served as the Rector of Budapest Tech from 2003 till 2010. He was the founder of Óbuda University, the successor of Budapest Tech and was elected as the first Rector in the period 2010-2014. He was the President of the Hungarian Rector’s Conference and member of European University Association Steering Committee in 2008.

Imre J. Rudas, Prof.

Óbuda University, Budapest, Hungary

“Mission Engineering”: Systems of Systems Engineering in Context

Abstract: Today most organizational or societal capabilities rely on a mix of material and non-material ‘systems’ working together to achieve desired outcomes – to achieve their ‘mission’. Organizations typically define mission statements about why they exist – their “reason for being” — and they use these mission statements as the basis for planning actions and investments. Government or religious organizations often form ‘mission’ teams to achieve a set of goals to share ideas or conduct negotiations. Space and defense organizations commonly refer to planned actions to achieve objectives as their ‘missions’ – e.g. US NASA Apollo mission to the moon. In most cases these include a set of objectives and a plan of actions to achieve these objectives. Recently US Defense has started to apply systems engineering concepts and practices to missions in what is being termed ‘Mission Engineering” – the deliberate planning, analyzing, organizing, and integrating of current and emerging operational and system capabilities to achieve desired mission effects. In this presentation Dr. Dahmann will discuss the motivation for employing systems approaches to mission capabilities as an extension and a broader context for application of systems of systems engineering.

DR. JUDITH DAHMANN is a principal senior scientist in the MITRE Corporation Center for the MITRE Systems Engineering Technical Center and the Capability Action Team leader for Systems of Systems (SoS).

Dr. Dahmann is currently the MITRE project leader for Systems Engineering Technical Support activities in the US DOD Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering supporting mission engineering activities for selected priority Defense missions and the application of digital engineering to mission engineering. She was the technical lead for development of the DoD guide for systems engineering of systems of systems (SoS) and is currently the project lead for International Standards Organization (ISO) 21839, a final draft international standard on ‘SoS Considerations for Systems Throughout their Life Cycle’. Dr. Dahmann is also the task lead for a set of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) SoS programs investigating advanced technology approaches to complex SoS challenges. Prior to this, Dr. Dahmann was the Chief Scientist for the Defense Modeling and Simulation Office for the US Director of Defense Research and Engineering (1995-2000) where she led the development of the High-Level Architecture, a general-purpose distributed software architecture for simulations, now an IEEE Standard (IEEE 1516).

Dr. Dahmann holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Chatham College in Pittsburgh, PA (1972), spent a year as a special student at Dartmouth College (1971-72), a Master’s Degree from The University of Chicago (1973), and a Doctorate from Johns Hopkins University (1984). Dr. Dahmann is an INCOSE Fellow and the co-chair of the INCOSE Systems of Systems Working Group and the DoD liaison and co-chair of the National Defense Industry Association SE Division SoS SE Committee.

Judith Dahmann

MITRE Corporation

Modeling and Simulation for Internet of Things as System of Systems
Paul Hershey, Ph.D., and Jayne Talbot

Abstract: Department of Defense (DoD) and commercial systems engineers face significant challenges with respect to producing System of Systems (SoS) applications and products. By definition, SoS comprises constituent systems that are operationally independent, managerially independent, physically decoupled, and geographically distributed. Furthermore, a SoS as a whole exhibits evolutionary development that can produce system to systems issues such as complexity, phasing, and emergent behavior. Emergent behavior is defined as behavior that cannot be deduced from the behaviors of the constituent systems themselves, considered individually or in subgroups. Furthermore, an emergent behavior is a global behavior that arises out of the interactions between parts of a whole and which cannot be easily extrapolated from the behavior of the individual parts.

The “Internet of Things” (IoT) may be defined as the network of devices such as vehicles, and home appliances that contain electronics, software, sensors, actuators, and connectivity which allows these things to connect, interact and exchange data requiring little to no human-to-human interaction. Therefore, the IoT qualifies as a complex System of Systems and therefore can be represented accordingly.

The topic that we discuss in this presentation is the role of Modeling and Simulation (M&S) in representing the IoT as a SoS. To effectively design devices for the IoT SoS or to create the network infrastructure to allow connectivity and data exchange between these devices; developers, service providers, and end-users must have some means of determining the impact of their design decisions. We propose using M&S to assist with the design and decision-making processes.

An IoT-based SoS is too complex to create a comprehensive hardware testbed within which all possible conditions can be tested. Likewise, to create the software to model all systems and their interactions is too expensive to create from scratch. Alternatively, one could fuse existing component models to create an overall SoS model. This approach is complicated by issues such as model pedigree and lineage, fidelity of input data, and normalization of data.

In this presentation, we provide the audience with an understanding of why M&S is useful with respect to design and decision-making for the IoT as a SoS. In doing so, discuss ways in which M&S can overcome some of the issues identified above, focusing on that of emergent behavior. We also provide real-life examples of M&S capabilities that support the IoT as a SoS in the following areas: training, planning, analysis, design and development, and production. We conclude our discussion with an investigation of future uses of M&S to support IoT as a SoS including extensions of M&S into artificial intelligence and machine learning and using M&S to identify and exploit emergent behavior of complex SoS.

Paul C. Hershey is with Raytheon IIS, Dulles, Virginia, where he is a Principal Engineering Fellow focusing on modeling and simulation, data analytics, autonomous systems, and cyber security. He received a Ph.D. and M.S., both in electrical engineering, from the University of Maryland, College Park, and an A.B. in mathematics from the College of William and Mary. He has published 36 patents (issued) with 5 additional patents filed and pending, and 58 peer-reviewed technical articles. Previously, he was an adjunct professor at George Washington University where he also served on the Curriculum Advisory Board. He is an active IEEE Senior Member and now serves on technical program committees for the IEEE International Systems Conference (also on the conference steering committee) and the IEEE International System of Systems Engineering Conference (also an industrial liaison). He is a Distinguished Lecturer on data analytics for the IEEE Systems Council.

Paul C. Hershey, Ph.D.

Principal Engineering Fellow, Raytheon

System-of-Systems as an Overarching Paradigm

Abstract: We have typically segregated systems into Standalone Systems and Systems‑of‑Systems (SoS). This was certainly accurate in the early days of SoS. But as our world becomes hyper-connected — both within enterprises and across enterprises — more of our system problems are starting to take on the characteristics of systems-of-systems and fewer of them can truly be considered to stand on their own. So, what if we started thinking about all systems as if they were systems‑of‑systems? What would be the downside, what would be the upside, and how could we make it work? This keynote looks at that basic question in proposing system-of-systems as an overarching paradigm for systems engineering.

Reggie Cole is a Lockheed Martin Senior Fellow and Master System Architect who specializes in large-scale distributed systems and systems‑of‑systems. Over the past 30 years he has served as an Army officer, systems engineer, systems engineering department manager, system architect and enterprise architect. During that time, he has also served as chief engineer on two major U.S. DoD programs. His experience includes a broad spectrum of systems, including satellite control systems, tactical communications networks, commercial telecom systems, strategic command & control systems, logistics systems and enterprise information systems. He has authored a number of papers and has contributed to books in the system‑of‑systems area. He is currently the Chief Enterprise Applications Architect for Lockheed Martin Corporation.