Early Design Exploration of Aerospace Systems Using Assume–Guarantee Contracts

We present a compositional approach to the early modeling and analysis of complex aerospace systems based on assume–guarantee contracts. Components in a system are abstracted into assume–guarantee specifications. Performing algebraic contract operations with Pacti allows us to relate local component specifications to those of the system. Applications to two aerospace case studies—the design of spacecraft to satisfy a rendezvous mission and the design of the thermal management system of a prototypical aircraft—show that this methodology provides engineers with an agile, early analysis and exploration process. We show that the analysis of thousands of configurations can be achieved on the order of seconds to minutes on a consumer-grade CPU.