Structural Complexity Quantification for Engineered Complex Systems and Implications on System Architecture and Design
The complexity of today's highly engineered products is rooted in the interwoven architecture defined by its components and their interactions. Quantitative assessment of structural complexity is mandatory for characterization of engineered complex systems. In this paper, we develop a quantitat...
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| Format: | Article |
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American Society of Mechanical Engineers
2018
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/114612 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6677-383X |
| _version_ | 1811085374197334016 |
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| author | Sinha, Kaushik de Weck, Olivier L |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics Sinha, Kaushik de Weck, Olivier L |
| author_sort | Sinha, Kaushik |
| collection | MIT |
| description | The complexity of today's highly engineered products is rooted in the interwoven architecture defined by its components and their interactions. Quantitative assessment of structural complexity is mandatory for characterization of engineered complex systems. In this paper, we develop a quantitative measure for structural complexity and illustrate its application to a real-world, complex engineered system. It is observed that low topological complexity implies centralized architecture and it increases as we march towards highly distributed architectures. We posit that the development cost increases super-linearly with structural complexity. Empirical evidences from literature and preliminary results from simple experiments strengthen our hypothesis. Preliminary experiments show that the effort increases super-linearly with increasing structural complexity (i.e., exponent, b = 1.69). We further introduce complicatedness as an observer-dependent property that links structural complexity to system level observables like the development cost. We further discuss distribution of complexity across the system architecture and its strategic implications for system development efforts. © 2013 by ASME |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T13:08:34Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/114612 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T13:08:34Z |
| publishDate | 2018 |
| publisher | American Society of Mechanical Engineers |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1146122022-09-28T12:13:27Z Structural Complexity Quantification for Engineered Complex Systems and Implications on System Architecture and Design Sinha, Kaushik de Weck, Olivier L Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Data, Systems, and Society Sinha, Kaushik De Weck, Olivier L The complexity of today's highly engineered products is rooted in the interwoven architecture defined by its components and their interactions. Quantitative assessment of structural complexity is mandatory for characterization of engineered complex systems. In this paper, we develop a quantitative measure for structural complexity and illustrate its application to a real-world, complex engineered system. It is observed that low topological complexity implies centralized architecture and it increases as we march towards highly distributed architectures. We posit that the development cost increases super-linearly with structural complexity. Empirical evidences from literature and preliminary results from simple experiments strengthen our hypothesis. Preliminary experiments show that the effort increases super-linearly with increasing structural complexity (i.e., exponent, b = 1.69). We further introduce complicatedness as an observer-dependent property that links structural complexity to system level observables like the development cost. We further discuss distribution of complexity across the system architecture and its strategic implications for system development efforts. © 2013 by ASME United States. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Vanderbilt University. VU-DSR 21807-S8) 2018-04-09T13:47:38Z 2018-04-09T13:47:38Z 2013-08 2018-03-20T12:42:34Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/ConferencePaper 978-0-7918-5588-1 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/114612 Sinha, Kaushik, and Olivier L. de Weck. “Structural Complexity Quantification for Engineered Complex Systems and Implications on System Architecture and Design.” Proceedings of the ASME 2013 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference IDETC/CIE 2013, 40-7 August, 2013, Portland, Oregon, ASME, 2013. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6677-383X http://dx.doi.org/10.1115/DETC2013-12013 Proceedings of the ASME 2013 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference IDETC/CIE 2013 Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf American Society of Mechanical Engineers SPIE |
| spellingShingle | Sinha, Kaushik de Weck, Olivier L Structural Complexity Quantification for Engineered Complex Systems and Implications on System Architecture and Design |
| title | Structural Complexity Quantification for Engineered Complex Systems and Implications on System Architecture and Design |
| title_full | Structural Complexity Quantification for Engineered Complex Systems and Implications on System Architecture and Design |
| title_fullStr | Structural Complexity Quantification for Engineered Complex Systems and Implications on System Architecture and Design |
| title_full_unstemmed | Structural Complexity Quantification for Engineered Complex Systems and Implications on System Architecture and Design |
| title_short | Structural Complexity Quantification for Engineered Complex Systems and Implications on System Architecture and Design |
| title_sort | structural complexity quantification for engineered complex systems and implications on system architecture and design |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/114612 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6677-383X |
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