A Model-Based and Goal-Oriented Approach for the Conceptual Design of Smart Grid Services

A solid demand to integrate energy consumption and co-generation emerged worldwide, motivated, on one hand, by the need to diversify and enhance energy supply, and, one the other hand, by the pressure to attend to the requirements of a heterogeneous class of users. The coupling between energy service provision and final users also includes balancing user needs, eliminating excesses, and optimizing energy supply while avoiding blackouts. Another motivation is the challenge of having sustainable sources and many adapted to the user ecosystem. Altogether, these motivations lead to more abstract design approaches to co-generation-distributed systems, such as those based on goal-oriented requirements used to model smart grids. This work considers the available design practices and its difficulties in proposing a new method capable of producing a flexible requirement model that could serve for design and maintenance purposes. We suggest coupling the approach based on goal-oriented requirements with model-based engineering to support such a model. The expected result is a sound and flexible requirements model, including a model for the interaction with the final user (now being considered a producer and consumer simultaneously). A case study is presented, wherein a small energy service system in an isolated community in the Amazon rain forest was designed.

Are multiscale Water-Energy-Land-Food nexus studies effective in assessing agricultural sustainability?

Several studies have highlighted the need for multiscale Water-Energy-Land-Food (WELF) nexus studies to ensure sustainable food production without endangering water and energy security. However, a systematic attempt to evaluate the efficiency of such multiscale studies has not yet been made. In this study, we used a data-intensive crop water requirement model to study the multiscale WELF nexus in southern India. In particular, we estimated the groundwater and energy consumption for cultivating five major crops between 2017 and 2019 at three distinct spatial scales ranging from 160,000 km2 (state) to 11,000 km2 (district) to 87 km2 (block). A two-at-one-time approach was used to develop six WELF interactions for each crop, which was used to evaluate the performance of each region. A Gross Vulnerability Index (GVI) was developed at multiple scales that integrated the WELF interactions to identify vulnerable hotspots from a nexus perspective. Results from this nexus study identified the regions that accounted for the largest groundwater and energy consumption, which were also adjudged to be vulnerable hotspots. Our results indicate that while a finer analysis may be necessary for drought-resistant crops like groundnut, a coarser scale analysis may be sufficient to evaluate the agricultural efficiency of water-intensive crops like paddy and sugarcane. We identified that vulnerable hotspots at local scales were often dependent on the crop under consideration, i.e., a hotspot for one crop may not necessarily be a hotspot for another. Clearly, policymaking decisions for improving irrigation efficiency through interventions such as crop-shifting would benefit from such insights. It is evident that such approaches will play a critical role in ensuring food-water-energy security in the coming decades.

On Representing Resilience Requirements of Microservice Architecture Systems

Together with the spread of DevOps practices and container technologies, Microservice Architecture has become a mainstream architecture style in recent years. Resilience is a key characteristic in Microservice Architecture (MSA) Systems, and it shows the ability to cope with various kinds of system disturbances which cause degradations of services. However, due to lack of consensus definition of resilience in the software field, although a lot of work has been done on resilience for MSA Systems, developers still do not have a clear idea on how resilient an MSA System should be, and what resilience mechanisms are needed. In this paper, by referring to existing systematic studies on resilience in other scientific areas, the definition of microservice resilience is provided and a Microservice Resilience Measurement Model is proposed to measure service resilience. And a requirement model to represent resilience requirements of MSA Systems is given. The requirement model uses elements in KAOS to represent notions in the measurement model, and decompose service resilience goals into system behaviors that can be executed by system components. As a proof of concept, a case study is conducted on an MSA System to illustrate how the proposed models are applied.

A Novel Collaboration-Oriented Requirement Model Mapping and Classification Method Based on Domain Knowledge for Complex Mechatronic Products

Complex mechatronic products include inter-disciplinary, inter-field, and inter-departmental requirement information. Aiming at the low digitization rate of existing product requirement information, a structured and digital product requirement model (RM) is defined. Besides, a collaboration-oriented requirement model mapping and classification method for complex mechatronic products is proposed, which realizes the automatic generation of the domain requirement models and the mapping between the requirement models and knowledge graph, thus improving the digitization rate of the product in the requirement phase. A simulated military plane horizontal tail control system is used as a case study to prove the effectiveness and feasibility of this method. Based on Hoteam PLM8.0 platform, a management architecture and the display path of product requirement model are given, which can provide a reference for the research and development of product lifecycle model management (PLMM) system.

Nutritional models.

This chapter presents an overview of computer models and nutrient requirement model used in managing farm animals.

Product-requirement-model to approach the identification of uncertainties in battery systems development

Electric mobility is on the verge of becoming a mass market. Major automotive OEMs have initiated programs to electrify their product portfolio. This transition poses new challenges and requires new innovative concepts in automotive development processes, especially for battery systems as the key component within electric powertrains. Battery system costs account for up to 40% of the electric vehicle’s total costs. Additionally, development cycles of battery systems for automotive applications are characterized by long development periods. Hence, the initiatives to advance electrification result in numerous development projects affiliated with significant development expenses. Battery systems can be referred to as mechatronic and electrochemical systems. They require a complex interaction of diverse scientific and engineering disciplines. Fast innovation cycles have effects regarding product requirements and assumptions towards their allocation. Hereby, uncertainties can lead to risks within development projects, especially in terms of time and costs. In current development processes, necessary changes are only dealt with reactively, causing unplanned additional expenses and delays. Thus, there is need for handling potential changes proactively, i.e. managing uncertainties leading to those changes as early as possible. New methods are necessary to identify and handle uncertainties of complex product systems within requirements engineering. An approach towards comprehensive uncertainty management is taken within this publication.

Analysis of the interaction effects between double shaking tables and test structure

Electrohydraulic shaking tables provide a direct means to evaluate structural performance under actual vibration conditions. The control–structure interaction is one of the most important reasons for the degradation of the control performance of the shaking table. This article establishes a series of novel analytical models to investigate the control–structure interaction effects between double shaking tables and test structure. These models are the model of shaking table, the model of control error signal, the flow requirement model of servo valve, the force requirement model of actuator, and the resonance response model of structure. Based on the analytical models of the flow requirement model of servo valve, force requirement model of actuator, and resonance response model of structure, a comprehensive simulation study is conducted under different structural conditions. The study reveals the influence trend and the influence degree of the control–structure interaction on the models. Furthermore, the applications in experiments, the suggestions for the designing of the shaking table, and the deeper explorations of the control–structure interaction are obtained.

Specifying a New Requirement Model for Secure Adaptive Systems

Security is a growing concern in developing software systems. It is important to face unknown threats in order to make the system continue operating properly. Threats are vague and attack methods change frequently. Coping with such changes is a major feature of an adaptive software. Therefore, designing an adaptive secure software is an appropriate solution to address software security challenges. Through estimation of maximum amount of system assets security, one can determine whether the system is protecting the assets or not; if not, reconfiguration can be employed. This paper proposes a new requirement model for secure adaptive systems using fuzzy, goal modeling and Description Logic concepts. The model contains three phases of modeling security aspects of the system, identifying formalizations and relations between the requirements and monitoring and adapting, when needed. To illustrate the relations between the requirements, goal modeling is used in the first phase and fuzzy Description Logic in the second phase. For the third phase, four algorithms are proposed to monitor and determine whether reconfiguration is needed or not. Theorems are given to prove concept satisfaction of the requirements. Furthermore, examples and case studies are discussed to evaluate and show applicability of the proposed model.