Description du sujet de thèse

Title: Definition of systems engineering processes, methods and tools for Newspace SMEs
Systems engineering is a discipline that aims to design and manage complex systems, taking all their dimensions into account. To deploy systems engineering in a company and make it operational, it needs to be adapted to each pillar (standards, processes, methods, tools), in order to move from the generic requirements of standards to concrete recommendations and instructions, applicable to a specific project (project dimensions, resources, complexity and system requirements...) in a given context (business domain, type and resources of the company...).
The space sector has recently experienced the NewSpace revolution, linked to the emergence of CubeSats projects, which are quick and easy to build and inexpensive, and has seen a number of small private companies enter the market. The absence of an engineering framework (including processes, methods and tools) adapted to NewSpace, simple and specialized to the space domain, prevents small companies from effectively managing the development of nanosatellites and tackling the complexity of these systems, which consequently reduces the success rate of projects.
Initial pioneering work has demonstrated the need and benefits of adapting engineering processes to the profile of small companies and the NewSpace context, while keeping them in line with current standards in these fields, and proposed an organized set of adapted processes.
We need to continue our efforts to support and accompany the engineering activity of small and medium-sized businesses, by making available to them not only a set of processes customized to their profile and business domain, but also the methodologies enabling the proper execution of these processes, as well as supporting tools, in order to build a complete systems engineering framework.
The digital transformation of development and the MBSE principles open up new opportunities to support the development of efficient, safe, manufacturable and operable complex systems with an executable MBSE approach based on a modeling and simulation approach supporting the objectives of systems engineering.
It is therefore necessary to follow a model-based engineering (MBSE) method to structure, make collaborative and efficient systems engineering.
The challenge is for the MBSE method defined for NewSpace SMEs to be light and efficient (concept of the right method and the right model, with a view to frugality of means), while integrating the reuse of existing elements, and interfacing easily with the company's internal processes and data. The tools supporting the method must also be adapted to SMEs (free or inexpensive, easy to use). They must also be compatible with the methods and tools inherited from past developments and still in use within the company.
The aim of this thesis is to develop a systems engineering framework adapted to a small company (SME) in the NewSpace field. It will be based on the definition of just-useful processes in relation to the generic system engineering and space standards proposed by mamadou's thesis. The challenge of the thesis proposed here is to define an MBSE methodology, also adapted, which will guide the execution of these processes, and a tooling allowing the construction of various models at different stages of the methodology, in a numerical continuity.
This plan will serve as a reference within the company for organizing, coordinating and controlling system engineering activities throughout the life cycle of a nanosatellite. It will formalize system engineering processes (as well as deliverables, roles, methods, KPIs, etc.), making them applicable in the defined context. Its content should be simple, clear and easily exploitable by project teams.

Contexte de travail

LAAS-CNRS Lab
Collaboration with the CNES

Le poste se situe dans un secteur relevant de la protection du potentiel scientifique et technique (PPST), et nécessite donc, conformément à la réglementation, que votre arrivée soit autorisée par l'autorité compétente du MESR.