Huseyin Dogan

Identifying top challenges for international research on requirements engineering for systems of systems engineering

Due to an increasingly connected society and industry, our modern societal world and all industry sectors now increasingly depend on large-scale complex Systems of Systems (SoS). The emerging interdisciplinary area of SoS and Systems of Systems Engineering (SoSE) is largely driven by societal needs including public services such as health, transport, water, energy, food security, etc. The scale, complexities and challenges presented by SoS require us to go beyond traditional Requirements Engineering (RE) approaches. However, as is evident from publications in major Requirements Engineering conferences and journals, no significant effort has been expedited towards addressing specific RE issues for Systems of Systems Engineering. This panel explores key RE challenges in Systems of Systems Engineering, specifically, the areas in which the international RE community need to focus its research, and the approaches that are most likely to meet these challenges effectively. We first introduce Systems of Systems Engineering and outline key characteristics of SoS. We conclude by arguing that there is an urgent need for the global RE community to develop new ways of thinking, new capabilities and possibly a new science as a key mechanism for addressing requirements complexities posed by Systems of Systems.

The role of human factors in addressing Systems of Systems complexity

Systems of Systems (SoS) can be described as a class of complex systems whose constituents are, themselves, complex [1]. They are characterised [2] as being composed of many heterogeneous systems that are geographically distributed; independently managed and/or operated; evolve over time; and exhibit emergent behaviour. There is a need to better understand the enterprise nature of the domains (e.g. defence, utilities, and transport) to enable human participants in such systems to cope more effectively with the increase in complexity that SoS imply. Current methods and approaches in Human Factors (HF) are inadequate in addressing SoS aspects associated with technical and organisational complexity. In this paper we argue that there is an urgent need to develop HF capabilities as a key mechanism for coping with the complexity of SoS.

Towards a Systems of Systems Engineering EU Strategic Research Agenda

This paper presents the work undertaken so far in the formulation of a Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) for research in Systems of Systems Engineering in the EU. The T-AREA-SoS project is introduced to provide a context, together with a section on Drivers for Change which the SRA needs to take into account. The strategy and process for the generation of the SRA is described, followed by details of outputs to date and the potential benefits it is believed would accrue from the implementation of the SRA.

Formalisation and mapping of terminologies for Systems of Systems Engineering thesaurus

The emergence of Systems of Systems Engineering (SoSE) poses challenges to the consistent use of terminology within and/or across heterogeneous sectors such as transport, energy and defence. In preparation for Horizon 2020, an €80 billion financial instrument running from 2014 to 2020 to implement the Europe 2020 strategy, the European Commission funded T-AREA-SoS project to formulate a strategic research agenda for SoSE that spans US and Europe activities. As part of T-AREA-SoS, a thesaurus will be created to ensure that SoS concepts and terms are consistently interpreted, and to provide an artefact that will be of significant assistance to planners of future programmes in SoSE. This paper proposes an approach for the formalisation and mapping of terminologies for a SoSE thesaurus development. This paper also discusses the theoretical foundations and exemplars of this applied approach in addition to the user interface specification for a proposed web-based thesaurus development.

SmartPowerchair: A pervasive system of systems

This paper presents the characterisation of a concept System of Systems called the SmartPowerchair, in which existing pervasive technologies are integrated into a standard powered wheelchair to enhance the quality of life through independent living. Traditional Systems Engineering focuses on building the right system whereas System of Systems focuses on selecting the right combination of systems and their interactions to satisfy a set of frequently changing requirements. The SmartPowerchair can be characterised as a System of Systems due to the integration of a finite number of constituent systems which are independent and interoperable, and networked together for a period of time to achieve a certain higher goal. A high-level two-dimensional System of Systems model is developed to illustrate the lifecycle stages of System of Systems and different levels including the Component, System, System of Systems and Capability levels. Usability evaluations and workload measurements of a constituent system is also provided.

Systems of Systems Engineering: A research imperative

Systems of Systems Engineering constitutes a major challenge for the 21st Century and research into this topic has become an imperative. The Support Action, T-AREA-SoS has been initiated by the European Commission to develop a research agenda in Systems of Systems (SoS) that will inform future investment in this area. Through an extensive consultation and review, a number of SoS capability gaps have been identified. Through structuring and subsequent consultation, these have been developed into twelve research themes the detailed areas of which are mapped to the three SoS characteristics of control, evolution, and emergent behaviour. A framework is presented through which researchers can develop a research campaign in SoS.

Re-framing “the AMN”: A case study eliciting and modelling a System of Systems using the Afghan Mission Network

The term System of Systems (SoS) is often used to classify an arrangement of independent and interdependent systems delivering unique capabilities. There appear to be many examples of SoSs, but the term has become a source of confusion. While many approaches have been proposed for engineering SoSs, there are few illustrative examples demonstrating their initial classification and resulting SoS structure. This paper presents an approach for framing a candidate SoS using the Afghan Mission Network defined as an Acknowledged SoS, and presents issues associated with SoSs stakeholders, human factors and interoperability considerations resulting from such an approach.

SmartPowerchair: Characterization and Usability of a Pervasive System of Systems

A characterization of a pervasive system of systems (SoS) called the SmartPowerchair is presented, integrating pervasive technologies into a standard powered wheelchair (powerchair). The SmartPowerchair can be characterized as a SoS due to focusing on selection of the correct combination of independent and interoperable systems that are networked for a period of time to achieve the specific overall goal of enhancing the quality of life for people with disability. A high-level 2-D SoS model for the SmartPowerchair is developed to illustrate the different SoS lifecycle stages and levels. The results from a requirements elicitation study consisting of a survey targeting powerchair users were the input to a hierarchical task analysis defining the supported tasks of the SmartPowerchair. The system architecture of one constituent system (SmartATRS) is described as well as the results of a usability evaluation containing workload measurements. The establishment of the SmartAbility framework was the outcome of the evaluation results that concluded range of movement (ROM) was the determinant of suitable technologies for people with disability. The framework illustrates how a SoS approach can be applied to disability to recommend interaction mediums, technologies, and tasks depending on the disability, impairments, and ROM of the user. The approach, therefore, creates a “recommender system” by viewing disability type, impairments, ROM, interaction medium, technologies, and tasks as constituent systems that interact together in a SoS.

Exploring the Requirements and Design of Persuasive Intervention Technology to Combat Digital Addiction

Digital Addiction (DA) is an emerging behavioural phenomenon that denotes an obsessive and problematic usage of digital media. Such usage could meet various criteria of an addictive behaviour such as salience, conflict, tolerance and withdrawal symptoms and, hence, it would raise new challenges and ethical considerations on the way we engineer software. Luckily, software as a medium for such addictive usage could be also a medium for enacting a behaviour change and prevention strategy towards a regulated usage. However, due to the recentness of such software-based interventions, we still need a body of knowledge on how to develop them. In this paper, we conduct empirical research, through a diary study and an online forum content analysis, to understand users’ perception of such emerging systems. The results shed the light on a range of design aspects and risks when building and validating such persuasive intervention technology.

A gesture-based CAPTCHA design supporting mobile devices

In this paper we present the design and evaluation of a mobile user friendly CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) scheme based on our previous work. Unlike the commonly used character recognition based CAPTCHA schemes that require a user to type the distorted characters shown in an image to pass security checks, this scheme allows a user to use gestures to operate specific objects on the screen so as to complete a CAPTCHA quiz. Moreover, it uses partially processed or distorted textual instruction to prevent a bot from easily figuring out the objects to operate for retaining the security of the scheme as a bot cannot utilize context effects as easily as human users can. A comparative study is also conducted to understand the usability performance of this gestured based scheme against Google ReCAPTCHA, a popular character recognition scheme, where better usability has been reported with the former when both were used on smartphones.