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The rapid growth of systems, both in size and complexity, combined with their distributed
nature, is posing challenges for their efficient integration and functioning. Moreover,
in order to achieve sustainability objectives and future goals, systems are increasingly
collaborating with each other, resulting in the emergence of Systems of Systems (SoS)
that are large-scale and independent. In such scenarios, multiple stakeholders and systems
from different disciplines with diverse interests need to interoperate. In various domains,
this trend of growing systems creates a greater need for interfaces that ensure seamless
interoperability in between and within these systems and SoS.
To address these challenges, an effective method for integrating systems and SoS is required.
A key to ease this integration can be the use of interface specifications to describe and
specify interfaces. However, there is currently no comprehensive understanding of how
to write high-quality interface specifications, nor is there a common overview of interface
specification approaches.
This thesis aims to fill these gaps of documented knowledge by reviewing recent developments
and best practices for interface specifications in the context of systems engineering
and SoS engineering. The review was conducted through a literature review focusing on
interface specifications, complemented by an analysis of existing interface specification
approaches and expert interviews. The goal is to provide an overview of current interface
specification characteristics and their common use cases. Based on this analysis, a
usage-driven approach in the form of customised interface specification mappings was
developed, which can assist in identifying an appropriate approach for specifying interfaces.
In light of the increasing connectivity in our lives, the work provides a framework for
better classifying and approaching interface specifications, seeking to move away from
viewing interfaces as neglected elements of systems engineering, towards a more intelligent
and productive classification and approach.
The increasing parallelisation of development processes as well as the ongoing trends towards virtual product development and outsourcing of development activities strengthen the need for 3D co-operative design via communication networks. Regarding the field of CAx, none of the existing systems meets all the requirements of very complex process chain. This leads to a tremendous need for the integration of heterogeneous CAx systems. Therefore, MACAO, a platform-independent client for a distributed CAx component system, the so-called ANICA CAx object bus, is presented. The MACAO client is able to access objects and functions provided by different CAx servers distributed over a communication network. Thus, MACAO is a new solution for engineering design and visualisation in shared distributed virtual environments. This paper describes the underlying concepts, the actual prototype implementation, as well as possible application scenarios in the area of co-operative design and visualisation.