System Design Combining Functional Decomposition And Object-Oriented Programming

Abstract

An architecture for designing complex systems includes combining functional decomposition and object-oriented techniques at each level along with specifying links between the levels as well as links between the objects at a level to promote understanding of the system under development and assist both the system design engineers and the hardware and software engineers to develop the system.

Description

RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This Application is a divisional of U.S. Ser. No. 11 / 657,952 filed Jan. 25, 2007 and claims rights under 35 USC §119(e) from U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60 / 789,210 filed Apr. 3, 2006, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.STATEMENT OF GOVERNMENT INTEREST[0002]This invention was made with United States Government support under Contract No. M4422 with the Joint Strike Fighter Program. The United States Government has certain rights in this invention.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0003]This invention relates to a method of generating a specification for a complex project and more particularly to the use of combined object-oriented programming and functional decomposition techniques to provide a consistent design methodology for architecting complex systems.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0004]Currently there are challenges associated with efficiently and effectively developing larger and more complex products and systems for a wide variety o...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The patent describes a method for designing complex systems using object-oriented programming and functional decomposition techniques. The method involves identifying objectives, requirements, and constraints, and then creating a functional object design that can be easily implemented. The design process involves iterative steps and requires a lot of information about the system, but it allows for efficient and effective design of complex systems. The method also includes a process for identifying and mapping the capabilities and constraints of each object in the system, as well as a process for generating diagrams to aid in the decomposition of complex objects. Overall, the method improves the communication and collaboration between system engineers and other-disciplined engineers, leading to better design outcomes.

Problems solved by technology

Currently there are challenges associated with efficiently and effectively developing larger and more complex products and systems for a wide variety of applications.

However, the available methods and tools only loosely imply a development approach instead of actually defining one.

The problem in such a functional decomposition strategy is that if one has 4,000-5,000 tasks to do, one cannot easily manage the breakup of the system into an appropriate hierarchy.

If one wanted to use object-oriented techniques for complex system design, they would not be well adapted to a hierarchical structure since the object-oriented techniques all have the objects at the same level.

Thus, object-oriented techniques were not generally utilized in complex system architecture or design.

The problem with such an approach is poor communication between the systems engineers and the electrical engineers, mechanical engineers and software engineers.

The result of a lack of communication or the lack of each engineer knowing where his task lies within the hierarchy can result in glaring omissions.

For instance, in designing a firefighting system in which one looks for forest fires and seeks to put them out, if one forgets to take into account that dropping water on an individual may cause injury or death and that the location of the individual must be accurately known when, for instance, a tanker drops flame retardant over a given area, then the omission is critical.

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