Symbolic Reasoning for Early Decision-Making in Model-Based Systems Engineering

Hardware-intensive engineering domains are undergoing a paradigm shift toward digitalization. This is caused by increased technological advances in conjunction with stricter regulations on sustainability, while customer satisfaction and market competitiveness need to be achieved. In domains such as construction equipment and railway, strong foundations of Systems Engineering exist for development and management of products. With the advent of digitalization, Model-based Systems Engineering (MBSE) is increasingly seeing interest and industrial adoption. An expected benefit of an MBSE approach is the analysis capabilities early on in systems development. This is enabled by full-system models that can assist in early-stage design decision-making. This paper discusses how symbolic reasoning may facilitate knowledge reuse and support automation of design decisions based on previous development efforts and experiments. We situate this contribution in a typical industrial MBSE process and highlight its potential use and implementation.