Complex Systems and Systems of Systems Engineering

Introduction

Although systems engineering has been around for some time, the domain is currently becoming increasingly widespread and attracting the attention of engineers who, rightly, see it as a federating and multidisciplinary approach to dealing with complex systems.

Having emerged in the fields of aeronautics, the aerospace industry and defense, systems engineering is now applied in most economic domains, including transportation, energy and the medical domain, to cite just a few examples. Various factors promote the application of systems engineering in a wide range of domains. Without giving an exhaustive list, these factors include the necessity to avoid beginning each project from scratch by making use of pre-existing resources; the long lifespan of systems integrating technological components with increasingly brief lifespans, necessitating careful management of obsolescence; the need to find appropriate solutions responding to expressed needs, timescales and budgeted costs; and the need to dismantle systems and reduce final wastage.

More broadly, the need to ensure the interoperability of systems with varied origins not designed for interoperability, in order to upgrade existing systems that are not best suited to current operational needs, leads us to apply system-of-systems engineering practices. Several works have already been published covering systemof- systems engineering, presenting theoretical foundations, fundamental concepts, domains of application, methods ...