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Systems-of-systems are often characterized as systems where the constituent parts have some independence from the whole. Recent research has aimed at clarifying in more detail what this independence means. It has shown that independence requires the constituent systems to be agents that observe the system-of-systems from within and construct internal models of it as a basis for decisions. This view on observers as parts of the system-of-systems parallels development in the field of second-order cybernetics several decades ago, yet the connection between that field and systems-of-systems has not been explored previously. This paper, therefore, summarizes key concepts from second-order cybernetics, including the subtopic autopoiesis. It then discusses what the implications are on systems-of-systems engineering through the identification of 17 concerns. These concerns relate to the physical topology, behavior, and control of the system-of-systems. This paper shows how these concerns directly relate to the theoretical concepts of second-order cybernetics and autopoiesis, and thereby, opens the door to further exploitation of this theoretical foundation.

The concept of a mission is important to system design and development, especially in system of systems (SoS) engineering. However, the diverse usage of the term 'mission' across disciplines often results in ambiguity regarding its role in practical applications in mission-centric engineering tasks. Clearly defined and precisely represented missions improve communication among stakeholders and help bridge interdisciplinary gaps. This study aims to investigate and analyze the state of the art for mission conceptualizations and representations and proposes a unified mission ontology (UMO) that improves semantic interoperability across various domains. To achieve this goal, we conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) to examine how missions are conceptualized and represented, analyzed the findings to obtain insight about cross-domain concepts related to missions, and developed a UMO that can be adapted to domain specific applications. The UMO facilitates semantic interoperability across domains through a high-level abstraction of shared concepts. To validate the comprehensiveness and adaptability of the UMO, we conducted coverage analysis using semantic similarity estimates to assess the equivalence of ontological concepts. This evaluation quantified the extent to which concepts from various domain-specific ontologies, including the mission engineering guideline, align with those in the UMO.

There is a large potential for automation and optimisation of transports within quarrying and mining, but operational models and characteristics for this purpose are lacking. This paper aims to provide insight into cyclic transports and the parameters that affect energy consumption and productivity. Detailed operational data from machines has been collected and analysed through automatic logging of the machine’s internal communication network. The paper presents and discusses the characteristics of the operation identified, develops models for energy consumption and productivity, and discusses their relation for optimisation and automation purposes. A conclusion is that stochastic fluctuations in activity times need continuous real-time control for an optimisation system to be effective. The method used in the paper resulted in regression models for cycle energy cost and hauler fuel rate, which provide both correlation and significance, which is promising for future validation and use in energy optimisation control systems.

This study explores how a core ontology for missions and capabilities in systems of systems supports basic and fundamental decisions related to development and operations of systems of systems. The study is based on a previously developed core ontology for mission and capability in the context of systems of systems. From the relationships in the core ontology concepts, this study extracts fundamental design and operational decisions. These decisions are compiled into a preliminary guideline aimed at assessing the feasibility of systems of systems. This compilation uses Kipling's six honest serving men's reasoning to support clustering of decisions based on their intended outcome. The study identifies categories of generic constraints that affect these decisions. The overall aim is that the clustered decisions and the constraint categories should trigger different points of views for designers and operators as they envision their systems of systems and constituent systems. The preliminary guideline developed is then used to illustrate a road paving system, and different ways of using the guideline are discussed. The tool demonstrates flexibility, therefore setting a good starting point for brainstorming and exploration of systems of systems design and operations.

The purpose of the study was to investigate the application of Digital Twins (DTs) in sectors critical to societal functions

In most systems-of-systems (SoS) and ecosystems, peer-to-peer relations are insufficient to provide the desired emergent behavior, but the support of mediators is necessary. Mediators are elements that facilitate the collaboration between the constituents of the SoS or ecosystem, without having a role outside it. The topic has previously been studied in the SoS field, mainly from a software engineering perspective, and separately also in research on software, business, and innovation ecosystems. This paper presents a systematic literature review on mediators across scholarly work in SoS as well as ecosystems. It identifies mediator functionality and implementation concerns, and discusses alternative terminology. Based on findings from the literature, a suggestion for an improved conceptualization is presented, which also includes the information, processing and interactions involved in the mediation.

In its broadest sense, collaboration can be defined as a united effort to accomplish activities that ultimately lead to the achievement of shared objectives. This requires the sharing of information, planning, risks, and rewards between collaborating entities to a certain extent. In the case of systems of systems (SoS) where diverse and autonomous constituent systems (CS) interact to achieve shared goals, collaboration presents multifaceted challenges resulting from its distinct characteristics, including interconnectedness among the CS, heterogeneity, scalability concerns, dynamic environments, emergent behavior, stakeholder alignment challenges, and intricate decision-making processes. In order to enhance the achievement of the SoS goals, we propose a policy-guided collaboration approach. In this regard, we establish a learning-based policy generation process with the goal of guiding the decision-making behavior of CS. The practicality of the proposed approach is illustrated through a focused analysis of a high-rise building fire incident response system. Based on simulation results, the proposed approach performs better than the conventional approach in terms of SoS specific task completion time, performance with changes in simulation inputs, and efficiency. We also conducted a sensitivity analysis of task completion time by varying independent decision variables such as the number of CS instances and the size of collaborative tasks.

A socio-technical system of systems (SoS) is a collaboration of independently operated and managed systems. These constituent systems join the SoS to work together for a common goal: to achieve positive emergent behaviors such as greater capability, efficiency, resource utilization, reliability, and robustness. To achieve such a goal, an SoS needs to be well-managed with mitigation plans for all system risks. However, existing risk management strategies were developed for individual, non-integrated systems and are therefore inadequate for use with SoS. This paper uses the COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden as a case study for exploring risk analysis for SoS management. We performed a risk analysis of this SoS based on STAMP (System-Theoretical Accident Model and Processes), an existing method from the safety domain, as part of developing a preliminary risk analysis process for practitioners. Preliminary results reveal that extended SoS structures, uncertainty-driven decision-making, emerging behavior, and changes in trust, policy, and legislation pose significant challenges. The study's contribution is that our findings provide a knowledge base to act as a guide for risk management of SoS. Applying a method for safety analysis to crisis management also extends the body of knowledge on methods for SoS risk analysis.