The document summarizes a demonstration of a digital thread for engineering a lunar rover prototype using Innoslate's systems engineering tools. It describes 4 tasks: research and design, building the prototype, testing it, and demonstrating the digital thread. Key activities included designing the rover, 3D printing components, assembling the prototype called SPECTER, simulating its mission in STK and MATLAB, and validating it meets requirements. The digital thread integrated models, documents, simulations, code, and tests to engineer a prototype lunar rover from concept to testing.

1. Digital Engineering a Lunar Rover
Demonstration of Innoslate’s Digital Thread
1
October 19th, 2021, Dr. Steven H. Dam

2. Ask Us Your Questions
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3. Meet Your Host
• President and Founder of SPEC Innovations
• Participated in the development of C4ISR and
the DoDAF
• Expert Systems Engineering Professionals
Certificate
• steven.dam@specinnovations.com
• @stevenhdam

4. Special Thanks To
4
Michael Campbell
Mallory Jones
Michael Jordan
Lilleigh Stevie
Andy Tapia

5. SPEC Innovations Background
NASA’s Break the Ice Challenge
Innoslate’s Digital Thread
Project Initiation
Task One – Research and Design Lunar Rover Prototype
Task Two – Build Lunar Rover Prototype
Task Three – Task Three - Test Lunar Rover Prototype
Task Four – Task Four - Demonstrate Digital Thread
5
Agenda

6. SPEC Innovations Background
Developed MBSE tool Innoslate, supports the entire Systems
Engineering Lifecycle
Software release v4.5 revealed more features to support a modern
digital thread experience within the MBSE tool
Interested in NASA’s Break the Ice Challenge to demonstrate
Innoslate’s Digital Thread
Goal: to produce a lunar rover prototype system using a complete
digital thread
Scope: system boundary to remain within the physical limitations of
the lunar rover prototype
6

7. Competition hosted by NASA
Solutions sought for:
Excavating regolith
Maximizing water delivered
Minimizing mass of equipment
Minimizing power consumption
Goal: Extract 10,000 kg of water from regolith in 365 days
7
Break the Ice Challenge

8. Excavate icy regolith at Excavation Site
Extract water from icy regolith using the NASA Water
Extraction Plant
Deliver water to Delivery Site
Performance parameters and environmental
constraints also provided by NASA
8
Mission Requirements

9. Used to step through the lunar rover prototype
lifecycle in Innoslate’s Digital Thread
9
Stepping Through the Lifecycle

10. Project Initiation
Used Documents, Diagrams, and Project
Management Views to initiate the Lunar Rover
Project
10

11. Defines the project’s:
Scope,
Schedule,
Budget, and
Technical execution
11
Documents View
PMP Document:
Lunar Rover PMP
Project Management Plan

12. Statement of Work
SOW created in an Action
diagram to define the
technical work
Tasks include:
Research & Development
Build
Test
Demonstrate
Challenge Deliverables
12
Diagrams View
Action Diagram:
Lunar Rover SOW

13. Auto-generated by opening a Timeline diagram or Gantt
chart from the SOW Action diagram
13
Timeline Diagram:
Lunar Rover SOW Diagrams View
Gantt Chart:
Lunar Rover SOW
Charts View
Schedule

14. Used to keep track of the status of each Task
14
Project
Management View
Kanban Board:
Lunar Rover
SOW
Kanban Board

15. Task One: Research & Design
Focuses on Architecture Development and Design phases
using Innoslate’s Documents, Diagrams, and Modeling &
Simulation
15

16. Sub-Tasks:
Research
Design
Incorporate Innoslate’s
Digital Thread
Produced documents:
Requirements, BOM, and
Final Report
16
Task One SOW
Diagrams View
Action Diagram:
Lunar Rover SOW

17. System Architecture Research
Investigated Break the Ice Challenge Rules
documentation to extract information:
Terms and definitions
Technical Constraints
Environmental Conditions
Mission Requirements
Technical Goals
Supporting Assets and Equipment
17

18. “As-Is” System Architecture:
Ground communication
Lunar Lander
Excavation Site
Delivery Site
NASA Water Extraction Plant
NASA Power Plant
18
Diagrams View
Asset Diagram:
System Architecture
Design – Context Analysis

19. Action diagram visualizes the Mission Scenario –
Includes all Actions the rover will perform on the surface
of the Moon
19
Action Diagram:
Mission Scenario Diagrams View
Mission Scenario

20. Created a Functional
Requirements checklist to
compare each prototype
design
Evaluated designs by
totality of functional
requirements met
20
Notes Document:
Prototype Options
Documents View
Existing Prototype Design Comparison

21. An Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) was conducted to
create weighting criteria for scoring and selecting a prototype
design option
Each prototype design was given a score using the weights
21
Criteria Weights Table
Design Options Score Table
Design Analysis

22. LEO Rover prototype selected with
the highest AHP score and the most
functional requirements met (27/47)
Ensures all parts have been acquired
Asset diagram created to track the
purchase details of items in the BOM –
Tracking numbers, order numbers,
shipping time estimates, serial numbers,
SKU numbers
Trace these entities to see their data
on Dashboards and in reports
Combine with user guides, SOP's
and more to develop a digital library of
all architecture assets
22
Documents View
Notes Document:
Bill of Materials
Bill of Materials

23. LEO Rover doesn’t meet all the
functional requirements
Additional equipment purchased:
3-D Printer for excavator claw,
materials storage unit, tire fenders
Robotic arm for excavating regolith
LiDAR sensor for navigation
LED lights for improving visuals
23
LiDAR
LEDs
3D Printer
Additional Equipment

24. Updated CBS previously created to record the costs of the
rover and its hardware components
Costs were rolled up within Database view to estimate the
total cost of the lunar rover’s hardware
24
Diagrams View
Hierarchy Chart:
CBS Entity View
Cost Acquisition

25. Used Ansys CAD tool
(SpaceClaim) to modify
LEO Rover design
Created 3-D Prints from
SpaceClaim for key
additional components
(Task 2)
Used Innoslate’s CAD
Viewer to store designs of
the final lunar rover
prototype
25
CAD Viewer
CAD Viewer:
Final Prototype Design
Final Prototype Design

26. “To-Be” System Architecture:
Ground communication
Lunar Lander
Excavation Site
Delivery Site
NASA Water Extraction Plant
NASA Power Plant
Lunar Rover
26
Diagrams View
Asset Diagram:
System Architecture * Connects the entire system
Final System Architecture

27. Using site locations and
distances specified by the
challenge, a travel route was
mapped for the rover
Distances scaled down to
the prototype’s size for travel
time calculation in Task
Three
27
* See Appendix for scale calculations
Rover Route

28. Models the excavation process the rover completes
each time it navigates to the Excavation Site
Running the simulator calculates the amount of regolith
the rover can excavate per excavation cycle
28
Action Diagram:
Excavation Scenario
Diagrams View
Excavation Scenario is one portion of the
Mission Scenario, previously described
Excavation Scenario

29. Focuses on Hardware and Software Acquisition
Phase using Innoslate’s Modeling & Simulation and
design engineering tools Ansys, STK, MatLab, and
GitHub
29
Task Two: Build

30. Sub-Tasks:
Build 3-D Printer and Print
Additional Equipment
Assemble Lunar Rover
Prototype
Incorporate Innoslate’s
Digital Thread
Produced SPECTER
prototype and Final Report
30
Task Two SOW
Diagrams View
Action Diagram:
Lunar Rover SOW

31. Creality Ender 3-D Printer was purchased to 3-D print
additional materials identified in Task One
Confirmed the 3-D printer was functioning properly through a
print test
31
Build & Test 3-D Printer
Successful Print Test
Equipment:
Creality Ender
3-D Printer

32. Additional equipment
printed for prototype:
Excavator Claw
Storage Unit
Tire Fenders
32
Printed Components
Equipment:
Excavator Claw,
Storage Unit, &
Tire Fenders

33. Assembled with the
servo motor and
Raspberry Pi
Mounted 3-D printer
Excavator Claw to the
Robotic Arm’s
grabbers
33
Build Robotic Arm
Equipment:
Excavator System

34. LEO Rover prototype was assembled upon delivery
LEO’s Raspberry Pi was also configured to be controlled from
a SPEC laptop
34
LEO Rover Prototype
Equipment:
LEO Rover Prototype

35. All of the components were
then assembled together to
create SPEC Innovation’s
SPECTER
Space Prospect Exploration
Convoy Transporting &
Evaluating Regolith
35
SPECTER
Equipment:
SPECTER

36. GitHub repository created for interfacing with SPECTER
Firmware allows messages to be sent to the equipment
components for performing functions
Messages also in return sent back and displayed to user:
Ambient temperature recording
Distance obstacles are from front and rear of rover body
Obstacle collision warning if rover body approaches too closely
36
SPECTER User Interface

37. Use a token to access GitHub
via Innoslate
View all the project’s
repositories on the GitHub
Dashboard
Issue created for each
message
SPEC’s software team then
added the code and published
the updates for SPECTER’s UI
37
GitHub Repositories
GitHub Access
via Innoslate
Innoslate Repositories:
SPECTER UI and
Firmware
GitHub Issue

38. Displayed to user:
Distance obstacles are
from front and rear of rover
body
Obstacle collision warning
if rover body approaches too
closely
Current voltage output
38
SPECTER UI Cont’d
SPECTER UI:
SPECTER Camera
View and Control
SPECTER

39. AGI’s Systems Tool Kit (STK) used to model the rover’s travel route
on the lunar surface in order to calculate time to reach the mission’s
goal of 10,000 kg of collected water
Assumptions made during model development:
Same route followed by rover for every regolith excavation and delivery
Rover has excavation rate of 100 kg of regolith per hour
Rover has carrying capacity of 100 kg
Rover can complete 10 excavation cycles before recharging battery
One full charge is 4 hours
Unloading regolith requires 15 minutes, and loading water requires 1 hour
39
Rover Route Analysis

40. Built to represent mission environment
Object representation in STK:
The Moon = Central Body
Site locations = Lat./ Long. Coordinates
Rover = Ground Vehicle
Communication w/ Earth = Satellites
Fidelity of STK model increased by adding
lunar terrain elevation, obstacles and
cratered regions
40
STK Model
STK Model:
Rover Route
STK

41. Action diagram simulates the mission scenario with STK
Represents one rover excavating regolith, transporting regolith to Water
Extraction Plant, and delivering water for storage
Runs until 10,000 kg of water is collected or the rover reaches 365 Earth
days on the Moon
41
STK – Innoslate Co-Simulation
Diagrams View
Action Diagram: One Rover
Sequence Scenario

42. Scripts added to Action entities to
communicate with STK model:
Initialize STK
Create global variables for time to traverse
values acquired in STK
Calculate duration components (start & end
times) and velocity vector components
Use duration components to calculate
travel times between lunar sites
42
STK – Innoslate Co-Simulation Cont’d
Diagrams View
Action Diagram: One Rover
Sequence Scenario
Initialize STK
Travel Duration to
Excavation Site

43. STK – Innoslate co-simulation run in the Action diagram calculated a
duration of 10.67 months to collect 10,000 kg of water using the previous
assumptions
43
Route Analysis Results
Calculated total distance
of 3,500 km the rover will
travel during the mission
Majority of mission will be
dedicated to excavation
and extraction processes
Action Diagram: One Rover
Sequence Scenario
Modeling &
Simulation

44. Results verified using a co-simulation with MATLAB
Velocity vectors in the X, Y, and Z planes were retrieved from
STK through Innoslate
Function script written in MATLAB to calculate the magnitude
of the lunar rover velocity
44
MATLAB Results Verification
MATLAB Function:
Rover Velocity Magnitude
MATLAB

45. Same Innoslate Action
diagram was executed but
with scripts to initialize
MATLAB instead of STK
“Total Distance Travelled”
Resource also added to keep
count and compute the
kilometers travelled by the
rover during its mission
APIs applied in Settings
45
MATLAB – Innoslate Co-Simulation
API settings in light mode

46. Same results found using a GET Request in the MATLAB -
Innoslate co-simulation
Duration of 10.67 months to collect 10,000 kg of water using the same,
previous assumptions
Total distance of 3,500 km the rover will travel during the mission
46
MATLAB Verification Results
Action Diagram: One Rover
Sequence Scenario
Modeling &
Simulation

47. Focuses on Phases Integration & Test, Operations Test &
Evaluation and Transition phases using Innoslate’s Test Center
and integration tools Ansys and LabView
47
Task Three: Test

48. Sub-Tasks:
V&V Requirements and Test
Suites
Lunar Environment Simulation
Test SPECTER Prototype
Conduct Performance and
Environmental Analysis
Incorporate Innoslate’s Digital
Thread
Produced Final Report
Document
48
Task Three SOW
Action Diagram:
Lunar Rover SOW
Diagrams View

49. Test suites were created in Innoslate’s Test Center to verify the
SPECTER prototype and each of its components function
properly and as expected
Test cases traced back to their corresponding requirement for
verification
Test suites created verify the following:
Robotic Arm and Servo Motor
Excavator Claw
LEO Rover Prototype
49
Verification Testing

50. Ansys platform’s Spaceclaim and Static Structural were used
to analyze and locate design flaws for the excavator claw
Metrics calculated:
Surface Area
Volume
Maximum Load Capacity
Maximum Pressure Tolerance
These metrics are used for simulating the Mission and
Excavation Scenarios models
50
Excavator Design Analysis

51. Used to analyze the excavator claw design’s CAD drawing
Calculated surface area and volume for the excavator claw
Modified Density Equation to calculate the maximum load
mass capacity the excavator claw can support per dig during
excavation
51
Ansys Spaceclaim
Max Load Mass
= Regolith Density * Excavator Claw Volume
= 231.9 g of regolith
Equation Editor
*Regolith density provided
by Break the Ice Challenge
Ansys Spaceclaim:
Excavator Claw

52. Continued Spaceclaim analysis of the excavator claw
Determined excavator claw pressure tolerance during
excavation using varying load capacities
Utilized Pressure Equation for each partial load capacity to
calculate the pressure tolerances the excavator claw can endure
during the lunar rover mission
52
Ansys Static Structural
60% Load Capacity = 139 g 80% Load Capacity = 185 g

53. Identified pressure points and area where the excavator claw
will be impacted during excavation
53
Ansys Static Structural Cont’d
Pressure = Mass Load Capacity * Lunar Gravity * Excavator Claw Surface Area
(60%) = 3.355 Pa
(80%) = 4.466 Pa
Equation Editor
Ansys Static Structural:
Excavator Claw
Direction of
Pressure

54. Used to perform a structural
analysis of the excavator design
Determines the strength and
stability of the design under
loading conditions
Analysis conducted for both
carrying capacities:
Strain Test
Stress Test
Deformation Test
54
Excavator Analysis Results

55. Test suite for LEO rover
55
LEO Rover Testing

56. Test plans were created in Documents View before
simulating lunar environmental conditions to validate
the SPECTER prototype
Test plans created validate the following SPECTER
Functionality:
Navigation – Speeds and travel times
Excavation – Regolith detection and collection
Storage – Materials containment and protection
Equipment Protection – Dust mitigation
56
Validation Testing

57. Conducted to validate SPECTER’s functionality and
efficiency. Parameters calculated:
Landed mass of rover’s equipment, the NASA Water Extraction Plant
mass, and total landed mass
Mass of total water delivered during the mission lifetime (365 days)
Power consumed by the rover, the NASA Water Extraction Plant, and
total power consumed during the mission lifetime
57
Performance Analysis

58. LEO Rover Prototype has a mass of 6 kg and a carrying capacity of 5kg,
resulting in a ratio of 5:6 carrying capacity to body mass
The average carrying capacity of a full-size rover is 100kg. Using the 5:6
ratio, this is an estimated rover body mass of 120 kg
Therefore, the full-size to prototype scale rovers have a mass ratio of 1:20
58
Prototype
Mass
Full-Size
Mass
Prototype to Full-
Size Ratio
Carrying Capacity 5 kg 100 kg 20:1
Rover Body 6 kg 120 kg
Carrying Capacity
to Mass Ratio
5:6
Landed Mass Analysis

59. The following masses have also been added to the rover’s body for
excavation functionality
Each piece of equipment reduces the rover’s total carrying capacity
(5 kg) and by consequence also reduces how much regolith or water
it can store at any given time in the mission
59
Equipment Prototype
Mass
Mass to Carrying
Capacity Ratio
Scaled, Full-
Size Mass
Robot Arm 1 kg 1:5 20 kg
Storage Unit < 1 kg < 1:5 < 20 kg
Battery < 1 kg < 1:5 < 20 kg
Solar Panels 0.3 kg 0.3:5 6 kg
Regolith Mass < 3 kg < 3:5 < 60 kg
The full-size lunar
rover can hold an
additional mass of
less than 60 kg at any
point in the mission
< 66 kg
Total Mass
* Max Carrying Capacity
Landed Mass Analysis Cont’d

60. In conclusion, the total mass of the full-size rover, including its
supporting equipment, is less than 186 kg
The NASA Water Extraction Plant has a landed mass of 700 kg
Therefore, the total mass to be landed on the surface of the Moon
for this mission is estimated to be 886 kg
60
Landed Mass Analysis Cont’d

61. Conducted to ensure SPECTER will withstand extreme
environmental conditions on the surface of the Moon
Low temperatures at Delivery Site – Ranging 50-200 degrees K
Low temperatures at Excavation Site – Ranging 40-100 degrees K
Reduced gravity of 1.62 m/s²
Lunar dust with electronically charged particles smaller than 20 microns
Vacuum atmospheric pressure of 2.28x10−12
61
Documents View
Environmental Analysis

62. Each environmental condition is mitigated:
Low temperatures at sites: A Warm Electronics Box encloses the
rover’s avionics to keep the equipment warm at operable temperatures
Reduced gravity: The wide set body frame and rugged wheels stabilize
the rover during navigation
Vacuum: Non-pneumatic tires were used on the rover body
Lunar dust: Tire fenders prevent dust from entering the rover body
62
Documents View
Environmental Analysis Cont’d

63. Demonstration will be
provided as a video
Filming for the video began
today
We will send out an
announcement as soon as
the video is available
63
Task Four: Demo

64. Questions and
Answers
Use the panel on the right to ask your
questions.

65. 65
Thank you.
Visit www.innoslate.com to get started on your
Digital Engineering journey.
Thank you to the other software products
that completed the digital thread.