Enhancing Simulation and Analysis of Aircraft Operational Scenarios via SysML Activity Diagram to BPMN Transformation

The aerospace industry is faced with highly complex and critical operational scenarios, exemplified by aircraft ground handling, where efficiency and safety are paramount. Simulation has become crucial for managing this complexity, allowing for analysis and optimization. Critical Path Analysis (CPA) helps identify the sequence of tasks determining the overall duration. Even though operations are formalized, Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) tools utilizing SysML Activity Diagrams (AD) lack sophisticated CPA and formal verification. To address these limitations, this paper proposes a model transformation approach for converting SysML ADs into Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) diagrams. The contributions of this paper include defining mapping rules for transforming relevant SysML AD constructs to BPMN and demonstrating this transformation’s feasibility using an aircraft standing phase case study. The results show that this approach enables advanced analyses, such as stochastic CPA and formal verification, which are challenging to perform directly within the original SysML modeling environment.