Multiobjective optimization in multifunction multicapability system development planning

Weiping Tan, Brian J. Sauser, Jose Emmanuel Ramirez-Marquez, Romulo B. Magnaye

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    13 Scopus citations

    Abstract

    Properly allocating resources to achieve system development objectives has remained a challenge in systems engineering management. Various optimization models have been developed to optimize respective figures of merit (FOMs) subject to development constraints. System readiness level (SRL) is a system FOM that was originally introduced to assess the maturity of a system during its development lifecycle and has evolved to cover the development of multifunction multicapability (MFMC) systems. Optimization models which include SRL as either the objective or a constraint have been proposed for system development planning. Building on the definition of the recently enhanced MFMC SRL, this paper proposes a multiobjective optimization model, called MO-SRL, to simultaneously optimize the following: 1) the maturity of the system's selected functions or capabilities and 2) the consumption of development resources. An evolutionary algorithm is used to obtain a Pareto set of optimal solutions, where each solution represents a development plan informing which system components should be advanced to which maturity levels without exceeding a certain amount of resource consumption. With the consideration of SRL correlation to typical system development lifecycle, this model can identify several development alternatives for improving the system maturity to more advanced phases with minimum resource consumption, and these multiple alternatives provide systems engineering managers with flexibility in planning system development.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)785-800
    Number of pages16
    JournalIEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Part A:Systems and Humans
    Volume43
    Issue number4
    DOIs
    StatePublished - 2013

    Keywords

    • Multicapability
    • Multifunction
    • Multiobjective optimization
    • Pareto optimal
    • System development planning
    • System maturity assessment
    • Technology selection

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