2017 Annual IEEE International Systems Conference (SysCon), 2017
Aircraft are generally designed and produced to be maintainable. Recently, the U.S. Air Force, du... more Aircraft are generally designed and produced to be maintainable. Recently, the U.S. Air Force, due to increasing aircraft unit costs, began to investigate early conceptual designs for attritable (unmanned) aircraft. Attritability is a system characteristic that trades reliability and maintainability for low-cost of a system meant for reuse — at least a few times. This characteristic is affected by system attributes like reliability, redundancy, reparability and cost. This concept of a trading these attributes for lower cost presents a very interesting design space for systems engineers, but it presents several challenges. This paper introduces the system characteristic of attritability and shows the far-reaching impacts and challenges that this novel attribute presents through the use of reliability modeling and cost estimation techniques.
Every year, the DoD upgrades their information technology systems, allows new applications to con... more Every year, the DoD upgrades their information technology systems, allows new applications to connect to the network, and reconfigures the Enterprise to gain efficiencies. While these actions are to better support the warfighter and satisfy national security interests, they introduce new system vulnerabilities waiting to be exploited. This article recommends the DoD enter the vulnerability marketplace to mitigate the risk of a cyber attack using these undiscovered vul-nerabilities. Through use of the vulnerability market, DoD will ensure information security is built into the application, minimize the number of distributed patches, and optimize investment in defense programs. Secure DoD Software Considerations for the Vulnerability Market lengths to test the security of a product. Through developmental and operational test and evaluation, penetration testing, and the comprehensive information assurance certification and accredi-tation Process, the DoD seeks to identify and mitigate ...
A Survey on Interoperability Measurement For nearly thirty years, both government and industry ha... more A Survey on Interoperability Measurement For nearly thirty years, both government and industry have actively explored research on interoperability measurement with the goal of creating a straightforward way of measuring, reporting, then improving the interoperability of complex networks of people, equipment, processes and organizations. Researchers have created frameworks and models, proposed measures, described levels, and listed a variety of qualitative factors in support of an interoperability measure. Within extant interoperability research, the authors’ research has uncovered nearly three dozen definitions of interoperability, over five dozen distinct types of interoperability, numerous interoperability attributes, and fourteen foundational interoperability measurement models and methodologies. At least eleven research groups have been the centersof-gravity for interoperability measurement research. This survey paper summarizes and focuses the current body of knowledge on inter...
Humans play a key role in the operation and support of most systems and model-based systems engin... more Humans play a key role in the operation and support of most systems and model-based systems engineering MBSE offers new opportunities to properly consider human capabilities and involvement. This research presents an approach for systems engineers to integrate system models with human performance modeling for early and more effective system design. Unlike analyses using traditional physics-based models found in most extant MBSE literature, adjusting system parameters for human-based analyses can greatly impact the design of the system itself. Adjusting a human-system parameter can lead to design implications including adjustments to task allocation, process and workflow, and interface design. To demonstrate this, a quantitative case-study approach is used. Starting with a set of Systems Modeling Language SysML diagrams, a task analysis is performed to inform an "as is" model of human performance in the Improved Performance Research Integration Tool IMPRINT. An alternative IMPRINT model is created with varying design parameters and utilized to perform a trade study. Through the analysis, constraints and assumptions placed on the human are verified and the results of varying automation estimated. With current design emphasis in MBSE and model-based engineering MBE, there is great opportunity to emphasize human considerations and integrate human performance analysis.
A methodology for the optimization of disaggregated space systems dubbed Disaggregated Integral S... more A methodology for the optimization of disaggregated space systems dubbed Disaggregated Integral System Concept Optimization (DISCO) has previously been proposed. The DISCO methodology was applied to multi-orbit and multi-function/multi-orbit disaggregation problems. The performance and resilience of these architectures is dependent upon stochastic variables such as environmental variations, satellite failure rates, and launch vehicle failure rates. This paper introduces techniques for assessing the impacts of these stochastic parameters on optimized space system conceptual designs, and their associated lifecycle costs. Previous analysis was performed identifying cost effective Disaggregated Weather System Follow-on (DWSF) conceptual architectures. The analysis techniques introduced in this paper are also applied to DWSF. This application demonstrates that the identified minimum cost solution is also the minimum cost risk solution for empirically derived satellite and launch vehicle failure rates. Initial results also indicate that the identified DWSF solution is very robust to significant reductions in satellite and launch vehicle reliability parameters. Conceptual design considerations gleamed from the applied stochastic analysis techniques are then discussed along with the broader implications on small satellite constellation designs and small satellite access to space.
The Journal of Defense Modeling and Simulation: Applications, Methodology, Technology, 2009
A general method of measuring the interoperability of a heterogeneous set of systems, experiencin... more A general method of measuring the interoperability of a heterogeneous set of systems, experiencing any type and number of interoperations, in the context of an operational process is given. Furthermore, for confrontational operations (friendly versus adversary), the method gives sufficient conditions for relating the interoperability measurement to operational effectiveness. Owing to the difficulty in creating a general method of interoperability measurement, developers of extant interoperability assessment methods have relied upon problem decomposition to produce methods of assessing the interoperability of specific types of systems experiencing distinct modes of interoperation. Unfortunately, this approach fractured the problem, effectively driving them further from the solution.Therefore, in this research, a holistic, fundamental, and flexible means of describing a general method of interoperability measurement was undertaken which models systems according to their interoperabili...
The Journal of Defense Modeling and Simulation: Applications, Methodology, Technology, 2014
The Department of Defense (DoD) acquisition system is often challenged by schedule overruns that ... more The Department of Defense (DoD) acquisition system is often challenged by schedule overruns that can be attributed to a complex acquisition process. This process drives great research interests in exploring intervention strategies that would help reduce program development delays. Recent studies indicate that policies that address (1) scope growth, (2) acquisition process variability and (3) program technology maturity should be investigated as they may have significant impact on reducing program completion time. However, quantitatively evaluating the impact of a new policy has been limited due to the lack of system models with appropriate fidelity. The application of a simulation model to address this challenge thus becomes a promising approach. In this research, we explore the benefits of the Enterprise Requirements and Acquisition Model, a discrete event simulation of the DoD acquisition system to quantitatively examine the temporal effects of scope growth, technology maturity, and decreased variation and means process times in post-Design Readiness Review contractor activities. The insights gained from the simulation experiments can potentially help formulate new policies to improve the complex DoD acquisition process.
Many applications reported in artificial neural networks are associated with military problems. T... more Many applications reported in artificial neural networks are associated with military problems. This paper reviews concepts associated with the processing of military data to find and recognize targets—automatic target recognition (ATR). A general-purpose automatic target recognition system does not exist. The work presented here is demonstrated on military data, but it can only be consideredproof of principle until systems are
: Overview of the presentation: Introduction, Six Step Enterprise Architecture Approach, Special ... more : Overview of the presentation: Introduction, Six Step Enterprise Architecture Approach, Special Operations Forces (SOF) Air Architecture, DoD and Joint Architecturing-Observations and Biases, Topics for Further Research.
2017 Annual IEEE International Systems Conference (SysCon), 2017
Aircraft are generally designed and produced to be maintainable. Recently, the U.S. Air Force, du... more Aircraft are generally designed and produced to be maintainable. Recently, the U.S. Air Force, due to increasing aircraft unit costs, began to investigate early conceptual designs for attritable (unmanned) aircraft. Attritability is a system characteristic that trades reliability and maintainability for low-cost of a system meant for reuse — at least a few times. This characteristic is affected by system attributes like reliability, redundancy, reparability and cost. This concept of a trading these attributes for lower cost presents a very interesting design space for systems engineers, but it presents several challenges. This paper introduces the system characteristic of attritability and shows the far-reaching impacts and challenges that this novel attribute presents through the use of reliability modeling and cost estimation techniques.
Every year, the DoD upgrades their information technology systems, allows new applications to con... more Every year, the DoD upgrades their information technology systems, allows new applications to connect to the network, and reconfigures the Enterprise to gain efficiencies. While these actions are to better support the warfighter and satisfy national security interests, they introduce new system vulnerabilities waiting to be exploited. This article recommends the DoD enter the vulnerability marketplace to mitigate the risk of a cyber attack using these undiscovered vul-nerabilities. Through use of the vulnerability market, DoD will ensure information security is built into the application, minimize the number of distributed patches, and optimize investment in defense programs. Secure DoD Software Considerations for the Vulnerability Market lengths to test the security of a product. Through developmental and operational test and evaluation, penetration testing, and the comprehensive information assurance certification and accredi-tation Process, the DoD seeks to identify and mitigate ...
A Survey on Interoperability Measurement For nearly thirty years, both government and industry ha... more A Survey on Interoperability Measurement For nearly thirty years, both government and industry have actively explored research on interoperability measurement with the goal of creating a straightforward way of measuring, reporting, then improving the interoperability of complex networks of people, equipment, processes and organizations. Researchers have created frameworks and models, proposed measures, described levels, and listed a variety of qualitative factors in support of an interoperability measure. Within extant interoperability research, the authors’ research has uncovered nearly three dozen definitions of interoperability, over five dozen distinct types of interoperability, numerous interoperability attributes, and fourteen foundational interoperability measurement models and methodologies. At least eleven research groups have been the centersof-gravity for interoperability measurement research. This survey paper summarizes and focuses the current body of knowledge on inter...
Humans play a key role in the operation and support of most systems and model-based systems engin... more Humans play a key role in the operation and support of most systems and model-based systems engineering MBSE offers new opportunities to properly consider human capabilities and involvement. This research presents an approach for systems engineers to integrate system models with human performance modeling for early and more effective system design. Unlike analyses using traditional physics-based models found in most extant MBSE literature, adjusting system parameters for human-based analyses can greatly impact the design of the system itself. Adjusting a human-system parameter can lead to design implications including adjustments to task allocation, process and workflow, and interface design. To demonstrate this, a quantitative case-study approach is used. Starting with a set of Systems Modeling Language SysML diagrams, a task analysis is performed to inform an "as is" model of human performance in the Improved Performance Research Integration Tool IMPRINT. An alternative IMPRINT model is created with varying design parameters and utilized to perform a trade study. Through the analysis, constraints and assumptions placed on the human are verified and the results of varying automation estimated. With current design emphasis in MBSE and model-based engineering MBE, there is great opportunity to emphasize human considerations and integrate human performance analysis.
A methodology for the optimization of disaggregated space systems dubbed Disaggregated Integral S... more A methodology for the optimization of disaggregated space systems dubbed Disaggregated Integral System Concept Optimization (DISCO) has previously been proposed. The DISCO methodology was applied to multi-orbit and multi-function/multi-orbit disaggregation problems. The performance and resilience of these architectures is dependent upon stochastic variables such as environmental variations, satellite failure rates, and launch vehicle failure rates. This paper introduces techniques for assessing the impacts of these stochastic parameters on optimized space system conceptual designs, and their associated lifecycle costs. Previous analysis was performed identifying cost effective Disaggregated Weather System Follow-on (DWSF) conceptual architectures. The analysis techniques introduced in this paper are also applied to DWSF. This application demonstrates that the identified minimum cost solution is also the minimum cost risk solution for empirically derived satellite and launch vehicle failure rates. Initial results also indicate that the identified DWSF solution is very robust to significant reductions in satellite and launch vehicle reliability parameters. Conceptual design considerations gleamed from the applied stochastic analysis techniques are then discussed along with the broader implications on small satellite constellation designs and small satellite access to space.
The Journal of Defense Modeling and Simulation: Applications, Methodology, Technology, 2009
A general method of measuring the interoperability of a heterogeneous set of systems, experiencin... more A general method of measuring the interoperability of a heterogeneous set of systems, experiencing any type and number of interoperations, in the context of an operational process is given. Furthermore, for confrontational operations (friendly versus adversary), the method gives sufficient conditions for relating the interoperability measurement to operational effectiveness. Owing to the difficulty in creating a general method of interoperability measurement, developers of extant interoperability assessment methods have relied upon problem decomposition to produce methods of assessing the interoperability of specific types of systems experiencing distinct modes of interoperation. Unfortunately, this approach fractured the problem, effectively driving them further from the solution.Therefore, in this research, a holistic, fundamental, and flexible means of describing a general method of interoperability measurement was undertaken which models systems according to their interoperabili...
The Journal of Defense Modeling and Simulation: Applications, Methodology, Technology, 2014
The Department of Defense (DoD) acquisition system is often challenged by schedule overruns that ... more The Department of Defense (DoD) acquisition system is often challenged by schedule overruns that can be attributed to a complex acquisition process. This process drives great research interests in exploring intervention strategies that would help reduce program development delays. Recent studies indicate that policies that address (1) scope growth, (2) acquisition process variability and (3) program technology maturity should be investigated as they may have significant impact on reducing program completion time. However, quantitatively evaluating the impact of a new policy has been limited due to the lack of system models with appropriate fidelity. The application of a simulation model to address this challenge thus becomes a promising approach. In this research, we explore the benefits of the Enterprise Requirements and Acquisition Model, a discrete event simulation of the DoD acquisition system to quantitatively examine the temporal effects of scope growth, technology maturity, and decreased variation and means process times in post-Design Readiness Review contractor activities. The insights gained from the simulation experiments can potentially help formulate new policies to improve the complex DoD acquisition process.
Many applications reported in artificial neural networks are associated with military problems. T... more Many applications reported in artificial neural networks are associated with military problems. This paper reviews concepts associated with the processing of military data to find and recognize targets—automatic target recognition (ATR). A general-purpose automatic target recognition system does not exist. The work presented here is demonstrated on military data, but it can only be consideredproof of principle until systems are
: Overview of the presentation: Introduction, Six Step Enterprise Architecture Approach, Special ... more : Overview of the presentation: Introduction, Six Step Enterprise Architecture Approach, Special Operations Forces (SOF) Air Architecture, DoD and Joint Architecturing-Observations and Biases, Topics for Further Research.
Uploads
Papers by John Colombi