Bringing Model-Based Systems Engineering to Diagnostics of Cyber-Physical Systems

Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) are large and complex systems, often playing a crucial role in the organisations in which they are deployed. Malfunctions in these systems are a significant concern, as they can be both costly and create unsafe situations. Downtime resulting from malfunctions can be mitigated through the use of robust diagnostic systems. CPSs share many commonalities across different domains. This fact can be used to formulate a broad methodology for developing diagnostic systems. Model-based systems engineering (MBSE) techniques, such as metamodelling, megamodelling, model slicing, and modelling through domain-specific languages, can provide a solid foundation for such a methodology. This paper outlines a PhD research project that aims to define such a MBSE-based methodology for defining diagnostics of CPSs using the aforementioned techniques. The research has been laid out in terms of the research questions that are to be investigated, the expected contributions, and the proposed approach to reach these contributions.