Architecting commercial aircraft with a Domain Specific Language extended from SysML

Abstract

Architecting commercial aircraft has been always challenging due to the complexity of the product. A Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) method was employed in this paper to handle this challenge, and a widely used general-purpose systems modeling language - SysML - was adopted to support the architecting work. To ensure compatibility between the modeling language and the specific aircraft architecting methodology, we explored construction and application methods of a Domain Specific Language. A new Domain Specific Language was created, in which several extensions to SysML were made, including Function & Components, Port, Exchanged Item and Relation. Benefiting from this new Domain Specific Language, an overall aircraft architecture model was precisely constructed.