In this paper, we review current requirements engineering (RE) research and identify future research directions suggested by emerging software needs. First, we overview the state of the art in RE research. The research is considered with respect to technologies developed to address specific requirements tasks, such as elicitation, modeling, and analysis. Such a review enables us to identify mature areas of research, as well as areas that warrant further investigation. Next, we review several strategies for performing and extending RE research results, to help delineate the scope of future research directions. Finally, we highlight what we consider to be the "hot" current and future research topics, which aim to address RE needs for emerging systems of the future.

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Research Directions in Requirements Engineering

Introduction.- The First Vertebrates, Jawless Fishes, the Agnathans.- The Earliest Jawed Vertebrates, the Gnathostomes.- Evolution of Modern Fishes: Critical Biological Innovations.- Tetrapods and the Invasion of Land.- Crucial Vertebrate Innovations.- The Dinosaur Integument.- Mammal-like Reptiles.- Reptiles Return to the Sea.

Origin and evolution

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) is an emerging technology with a tremendous potential to revolutionize warfare and to enable new civilian applications. It is integral part of future urban civil and military applications. It technologically matures enough to be integrated into civil society. The importance of UAS in scientific applications has been thoroughly demonstrated in recent years (DoD, 2010). Whatever missions are chosen for the UAS, their number and use will significantly increase in the future. UAS today play an increasing role in many public missions such as border surveillance, wildlife surveys, military training, weather monitoring, and local law enforcement. Challenges such as the lack of an on-board pilot to see and avoid other aircraft and the wide variation in unmanned aircraft missions and capabilities must be addressed in order to fully integrate UAS operations in the NAS in the Next Gen time frame. UAVs are better suited for dull, dirty, or dangerous missions than manned aircraft. UAS are mainly used for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), border security, counter insurgency, attack and strike, target identification and designation, communications relay, electronic attack, law enforcement and security applications, environmental monitoring and agriculture, remote sensing, aerial mapping and meteorology. Although armed forces around the world continue to strongly invest in researching and developing technologies with the potential to advance the capabilities of UAS.

Review of Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2003.

Autonomous aerobatic maneuvering of miniature helicopters

Review of Active Space Debris Removal Methods

Autonomous UAV science missions hold great promise for improving the productivity of airborne science research and applications. Potential UAV science missions have been reviewed and common autonomy needs have been identified. Preliminary efforts to craft an Intelligent Mission Management architecture for observational autonomy are evolving. Three science missions, along with the architecture, the technology needs and operational requirements for autonomy are highlighted.

UAV Autonomous Operations for Airborne Science Missions

This paper describes the use of Obstacle Analysis to identify anomaly handling requirements for a safety-critical, autonomous system. The software requirements for the system evolved during operations due to an on-going effort to increase the autonomous system’s robustness. The resulting increase in autonomy also increased system complexity. This investigation used Obstacle Analysis to identify and to reason incrementally about new requirements for handling failures and other anomalous events. Results reported in the paper show that Obstacle Analysis complemented standard safety-analysis techniques in identifying undesirable behaviors and ways to resolve them. The step-by-step use of Obstacle Analysis identified potential side effects and missing monitoring and control requirements. Adding an Availability Indicator and feature-interaction patterns proved useful for the analysis of obstacle resolutions. The paper discusses the consequences of these results in terms of the adoption of Obstacle Analysis to analyze anomaly handling requirements in evolving systems.

Using obstacle analysis to identify contingency requirements on an unpiloted aerial vehicle

A new generation of spacecraft is now under development by NASA to replace the Space Shuttle and return astronauts to the Moon. These spacecraft will have a manual control capability for several mission tasks, and the ease and precision with which pilots can execute these tasks will have an important effect on mission risk and training costs. This paper focuses on the handling qualities of a spacecraft based on dynamics similar to that of the Crew Exploration Vehicle, during the last segment of the docking task with a space station in low Earth orbit. A previous study established that handling qualities for this task degrade significantly as the level of translation-into-rotation coupling increases. The goal of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of various pilot aids designed to mitigate the handling qualities degradation caused by this coupling. Four pilot tools were ev adluaetead:d-band box/indicator, flight-path marker, translation guidance cues, and feed-forward control. Each of these pilot tools improved handling qualities, generally with greater improvements resulting from using these tools in combination. A key result of this study is that feedforward control effectively counteracts coupling effects, providing solid Level 1 handling qualities for the spacecraft configuration evaluated.

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Handling Qualities Evaluation of Pilot Tools for Spacecraft Docking in Earth Orbit

A synopsis of experience from the fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft communities in handling qualities development and the use of the Cooper-Harper pilot rating scale is presented as background for spacecraft handling qualities research, development, test, and evaluation (RDT&E). In addition, handling qualities experiences and lessons-learned from previous United States (US) spacecraft developments are reviewed. This report is intended to provide a central location for references, best practices, and lessons-learned to guide current and future spacecraft handling qualities RDT&E.

https://www.aviationsystems.arc.nasa.gov/publications/shaq/NASA_Pub_2009_Bailey.pdf

Cooper-Harper Experience Report for Spacecraft Handling Qualities Applications

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, is developing Intelligent Mission Management (IMM) technology for Uninhabited Aerial Vehicles (UAV’s) under the Vehicle Systems Program’s Autonomous Robust Avionics Project. The objective of the project is to develop air vehicle and associated ground element technology to enhance mission success by increasing mission return and reducing mission risk. Unanticipated science targets, uncertain conditions and changing mission requirements can all influence a flight plan and may require human intervention during the flight; however, time delays and communications bandwidth limit opportunities for operator intervention. To meet these challenges, we will develop UAV-specific technologies enabling goal-directed autonomy, i.e. the ability to redirect the flight in response to current conditions and the current goals of the flight. Our approach divides goal-directed autonomy into two components, an on-board Intelligent Agent Architecture (IAA) and a ground based Collaborative Decision Environment (CDE). These technologies cut across all aspects of a UAV system, including the payload, inner- and outer-loop onboard control, and the operator’s ground station.

https://ti.arc.nasa.gov/m/profile/frank/sullivan.SPIE-04-Final.pdf

Chad R. Frost

Papers

UAV Autonomous Operations for Airborne Science Missions

Using obstacle analysis to identify contingency requirements on an unpiloted aerial vehicle

Handling Qualities Evaluation of Pilot Tools for Spacecraft Docking in Earth Orbit

Cooper-Harper Experience Report for Spacecraft Handling Qualities Applications

Intelligent mission management for uninhabited aerial vehicles