Innovative Operating Software

Proposed herein is a collaborative engineering environment based on an object-oriented, multidisciplinary, distributed computing framework supporting application development for integrated product and process engineering. It supports the specification of software elements through UML diagrams and detailed graphical composition of object hierarchies and process schematics for comprehensive application development. It provides a visual environment supporting object-oriented application development, user interface customization, and legacy tool integration. Legacy software tools can be updated into object structures and associated with new classes for composing and developing large scale applications. It facilitates distributed object computing enabling interoperability among distributed applications and users. Product and process data models are organized in knowledge-bases providing the foundation for knowledge management and information processing for design exploration. Workflow process control for product life cycle management is supported. Ultimately, the framework reduces the time and cost of custom application development, deployment, and maintenance. Teaming with Raytheon, an application for cryocooler product and process automation will be developed and used in the design and analysis of a radiation hard, low cost space cryocooler electronics module, with the objective being the development of an end-to-end cryocooler system simulation and design tool. It will integrate product design tools, radiation, thermal, and structural analysis software. Prototype models will be built and radiation effects testing will be performed to verify and validate the radiation transport model.