The Dynamic System Theory as a Tool to Model and Guide the Concurrent Engineering Design Process: the Space System Design Application

A method to support decisions to be taken during the space system preliminary design process in a Concurrent Engineering (CE) framework, based on the dynamic system theory, is presented. That approach provides the team of engineers a tool to analyze and select the behavior each designer should maintain to let the design process converge to a stable equilibrium. The equilibria of the design process dynamics are looked for and their stability features are investigated according to significant parameters strictly related to the decision making process each designer in the team goes through. Some examples concerning the space system design are proposed to highlight the power of the tool.