The main objective of the activity, performed in a collaboration between RHEA, Siemens Industry Software and OHB, was to develop and test a collaborative software tool suite which can help users to apply GCD to their studies. Combining the two existing tools, COMET and Simcenter™ Studio, which has been recently released by Siemens, a prototype software solution has been developed which exploits the individual strengths and scopes of both.

As new software tools are developed for Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) applications, parallel improvements are needed for Concurrent Engineering teams, since this can be one of the first steps for a model-based approach to build-up on throughout the continuation of the project. One of the main constraints during Concurrent Design (CD) studies is the capability of generating and evaluating a large amount of possible mission architectures without the implication of additional experts or time allocation.

The GCD activity aims to develop a new capability called “Generative Concurrent Design” based on two existing software components, namely the RHEA COMET and Siemens Industry Software Simcenter™ Studio (previously name “Dx”). The COMET is the RHEA industrial implementation of ECSSE-TM-10-25, which is purpose built to support collaborative engineering during the early phases of the Space Mission lifecycle. Simcenter™ Studio is a single-discipline design, single-user application that enables automatic generation and evaluation of different system variants. The development of an enhanced COMET® and Simcenter™ Studio brings generative engineering to Concurrent Design, where teams will be able to iterate even faster, focusing on these variants that are most promising.

COMET is a tool used for collaborative engineering, typically used in a Concurrent Engineering Facility (CDF) context. The suite includes a centralized server infrastructure that serves as a data store and a number of clients that give users the capabilities to work on the engineering models in near-real-time synchronization. COMET is compliant with ECSS-E-TM-10-25A, the technical memorandum defining a standard model-based data exchange.

Simcenter Studio is a tool for generative engineering, that allows for the automatic synthesis and evaluation of multiple architecture options. It also offers a recommender application to guide the selection of solutions among the potentially large set of design options. This last step can now be done concurrently by multiple users to decide together on the most optimal or preferred architecture solution.