Modeling aerospace systems product lines in SysML

As the complexity of avionic systems increases, the aerospace industry is turning to product-line engineering and model-based development to better manage complexity and reduce cost. This paper describes a method and a pattern catalog for modeling avionics product lines in SysML, a standard systems modeling language. The method is designed to satisfy aerospace systems and software development standards, and the patterns provide guidance for expressing variability in SysML. The paper also reports on the experience in applying the method and the patterns to model families of propeller controllers and fuel controllers for turbo engines.