Conceptual Design Report Military Tactical Air Defence System

MTADS Conceptual Design Report (CDR) (40%; 1500 words) Introduction The purpose of the MTADS CDR assignment is to develop four high-level solution concepts for the MTADS need. You will begin by taking a list of eight “official” core Functional Requirements as your starting point – see the functions below: · Detect (enemy air threats) · Neutralise (enemy air threats) · Communicate (with friendly forces) · Move (itself across a variety of terrains) · Carry (secondary loads) · Power (itself independently) · Control (itself and its subsystems) · Protect (itself from hostile actions and effects) Each functional requirement listed above defines a “How to Verb Noun” problem (e.g., How to detect enemy air threats) that needs to be solved, with the individual solutions synthesised to form one of four high-level solution concepts. 1. An Australian solution – this means one that could be produced in Australia, without the need to source components from overseas. 2. An Off-the-shelf solution – this means one that can be made entirely from existing components that are readily available (whether acquired locally or overseas). 3. A Budget solution – this means that the primary consideration is finding the lowest cost solution. This solution may have to sacrifice quality in favour of cost. 4. A Quality solution – this means that the focus is on performance. This solution will favour quality over other factors. Report Template In order to develop the required conceptual solutions, you should complete the following steps, documenting each in your report. 1. Introduction You will briefly outline the background to this CDR, including relevant information that helps set the scene for the development of high-level solution concepts. This may include some information from the OCD and will likely include other systems engineering information such as a concept diagram that shows the system of interest and its environment. You may also describe the life-cycle model that you are using/recommending for the development of this system, some referencing of scenarios and how these were used to understand requirements for the system, and a summary of any relevant background information, fundamental inputs and pre-existing user needs. 2. Enhanced Functional Flow Block Diagram Develop and document an EFFBD to show the eight core MTADS functional requirements and any high-level flows between them. Remember that the “flows” may be energy or information. 3. N2 Chart Once you have an EFFBD for the MTADS, you will then develop and document an N2 chart for the system. Remember that the purpose of the N2 chart is to understand cohesion, binding and coupling in the system. This will help you identify any subsystems, and any critical nodes, which will assist you when you begin to explore system solutions. 4. Idea Generation Generate a range of physical solution options for each of the eight core functional requirements. You can use whatever idea generation techniques you like; however, you document your use of Similarities & Differences for at least one of your functions and Brainstorming for at least one other. 5. Idea Refinement You will carry out a Performance & Risk Assessment of each solution option before entering the surviving options into an initial Morphological Table. Your initial Morphological Table will include the eight core functions with five solution options for each function (after discarding weaker options as a result of your P:R assessment). Therefore, your initial Morphological Table with be 8 x 5 in size. You will then document the use the six concepts (cohesion, binding, etc.) and information from your N2 chart, to reduce the complexity of the initial Morphological Table. You may also consider possible trade-offs between functions, or any other relevant information, to help simplify your initial Morphological Table. You will conclude this section with a simplified Morphological Table. This simplified version with include the eight core functions but will have fewer than five solution options for each function. It may also include the combination functions so that the simplified table will be effectively smaller than the initial 8 x 5 version. 6. System Synthesis Using the simplified Morphological Table, you will synthesise the four required high-level solution concepts (Australian, Off-the-Shelf, etc), describing the rationale for each design. 7. Conceptual Design Recommendation Once you have synthesised the four high-level system solutions, and described them, your final step is to recommend one solution for further development in the next stage of systems engineering. To do this you will need to describe a set of 4-6 key stakeholder requirements (i.e. needs). You may refer back to the OCD for these. Using these key stakeholder requirements, you will then develop a Decision Matrix. Your report will document the creation of this decision matrix and your evaluation of each solution against the criteria in the matrix. This decision matrix should include the existing solution (the current system used by the Australian Army) as the baseline reference for this evaluation. If more than one solution has a similar evaluation score, you may include a second decision matrix, with additional criteria, in order to arrive at a final recommendation. Your conceptual design report will conclude with your recommendation for which of the four high-level system solutions should be funded for further development. Grading Advice A High Distinction in this assignment will be of the specified length and will be written in clear, correct English. It will be professionally presented as a Word document. An HD report will include a full description of the MTADS conceptual design, from the initial need expressed by the customer, through to a recommendation for a single design for further development. It will make use of all the tools and techniques covered in classes (e.g. EFFBD, N2 chart, Morphological Tables, idea generation techniques, decision matrices). Furthermore, an HD report will show that the student understands the basic systems engineering process, what it does, how the various activities, tools and methods link together, and how it is used to capture the high-level design of a complex system. A P2 in this assignment is likely to be shorter than the specified length and will be poorly written. It may be poorly presented, with an unprofessional look. It will be missing some elements of the MTADS design information, and/or will fail to capture all of the system needs and translate these into functional requirements. A P2 will use some of the techniques discussed in class but will probably use these only with partial success. A P2 will show only a rudimentary understanding of the systems engineering process. Course Objective Assessed CO1 CO2 CO5