NASA SBIR 2008 Solicitation

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
InterCAX LLC
2402 Lively Trail
Atlanta, GA 30345 - 3837
(404) 894-4404

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Manas Bajaj
manas.bajaj@intercax.com
2402 Lively Trail
Atlanta, GA 30345 - 3837
(404) 894-4404

Expected Technology Readiness Level (TRL) upon completion of contract: 4 to 5

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (Limit 2000 characters, approximately 200 words)
The innovation proposed here is the Composable Mission Framework (CMF)—a model-based software framework that shall enable seamless continuity of mission design and simulation from early stage advanced studies to detailed mission design and development.

The uniqueness of our approach lies in using an open standard for systems modeling and design (SysML) to wrap mission models including the mission development process thus providing a coherent map of mission knowledge. InterCAX's Composable Object technology provides the backend wrapping, model management, and simulation orchestration capabilities to the visual SysML-based mission model at the front end.

The Composable Object technology has already demonstrated the ability to power SysML-based models with math simulation capabilities for early design stages. ParaMagic is a commercially available tool being used by early adopters of SysML at JPL. The Composable Object technology has also demonstrated the ability to associate detailed design and simulation models such as those created in CAD and FEA tools. However, a big gap exists in the SysML-based world for conceptual system design and the detailed system design-based world. If the detailed system design and simulation models could be wrapped as SysML objects and the simulations and workflows orchestrated by the Composable Object technology, it will cover the entire gamut of complex system modeling and analysis world from trade studies and optimization to project scheduling.

The key objective of Phase 1 is to wrap both conceptual and detailed system design and simulation models as SysML objects which has not been done before, and to demonstrate continuity of mission concepts from simple to detailed implementation.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
Several NASA laboratories are exploring Model-Based Engineering processes with pilot projects in SysML model development and simulation. InterCAX has worked with several such projects at JPL where its ParaMagic product is being evaluated for potential applications at both exploratory (e.g. TeamX environment) and development phases. The technical advances proposed here, primarily bridges between high-level modeling tools and detailed design tools, would easily integrate into these efforts and address key needs identified by NASA management in model-based proposals: requirements traceability, design object continuity, cost, and optimization.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
Simulation of complex "systems of systems" with end-to-end project capabilities has wide applications in engineering, government, defense, business and finance. The initial market opportunity is for simulation-driven design in major manufacturing industries: aerospace, automotive/transportation, and electronics. These companies develop and manufacture complex products, generally with extended supply chains, and are leaders in the practice of systems engineering and product/platform architecture. The user profile for next-generation modeling and simulation tools within the companies includes
• Systems engineers and project managers
• Design engineers using high-end MCAD tools (e.g. CATIA, ProE) and ECAD tools (e.g. Board Station, Visula, Allegro)
• Analysts using high-end tools for mechanical, electronic, and thermal simulation, and so on.

Advanced simulation capabilities also have major market opportunities in other fields, including civil and environmental engineering (e.g., the 2008 INCOSE International Symposium was focused on the environment), business process analysis, and computational finance.

NASA's technology taxonomy has been developed by the SBIR-STTR program to disseminate awareness of proposed and awarded R/R&D in the agency. It is a listing of over 100 technologies, sorted into broad categories, of interest to NASA.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING

Simulation Modeling Environment Software Development Environments Software Tools for Distributed Analysis and Simulation