Publications

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This report describes the architectural design for a high fidelity simulation of a refinery and refinery burner, including demonstrations of impacts to the refinery if errors occur during the refinery process. The refinery burner model and simulation are a part of the capabilities within the Sandia National Laboratories Virtual Control System Environment (VCSE). Three components comprise the simulation: HMIs developed with commercial SCADA software, a PLC controller, and visualization software. All of these components run on different machines. This design, documented after the simulation development, incorporates aspects not traditionally seen in an architectural design, but that were utilized in this particular demonstration development. Key to the success of this model development and presented in this report are the concepts of the multiple aspects of model design and development that must be considered to capture the necessary model representation fidelity of the physical systems.

This paper describes a new hybrid modeling and simulation architecture developed at Sandia for understanding and developing protections against and mitigations for cyber threats upon control systems. It first outlines the challenges to PCS security that can be addressed using these technologies. The paper then describes Virtual Control System Environments (VCSE) that use this approach and briefly discusses security research that Sandia has performed using VCSE. It closes with recommendations to the control systems security community for applying this valuable technology.

Tools are necessary for the DoD to analyze their information system's security, reliability, and resilience against cyber attack. Today's security analysis utilize real systems such as computers, network routers and other network equipment, computer emulations (e.g., virtual machines) and simulation models separately to analyze interplay between threats and safeguards. In contrast, we are developing new methods to combine these three approaches to provide hybrid Simulated, Emulated, and Physical Investigative Analysis (SEPIA) environments. Sandia Labs' current SEPIA environment enables simulated networks to pass network traffic and perform, from the outside, like real networks. We connect both emulated and physical routers and computers to the simulated networks. This provides higher fidelity representations of key network nodes while still leveraging the scalability and cost advantages of simulation tools. SEPIA includes tools that facilitate rapid configuration and deployment of experiments. The result is to rapidly produce large yet relatively low-cost multi-fidelity SEPIA networks of computers and routers that let analysts quickly investigate threats and test protection approaches. © 2009 IEEE.

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This report describes recent progress made in developing and utilizing hybrid Simulated, Emulated, and Physical Investigative Analysis (SEPIA) environments. Many organizations require advanced tools to analyze their information system's security, reliability, and resilience against cyber attack. Today's security analysis utilize real systems such as computers, network routers and other network equipment, computer emulations (e.g., virtual machines) and simulation models separately to analyze interplay between threats and safeguards. In contrast, this work developed new methods to combine these three approaches to provide integrated hybrid SEPIA environments. Our SEPIA environments enable an analyst to rapidly configure hybrid environments to pass network traffic and perform, from the outside, like real networks. This provides higher fidelity representations of key network nodes while still leveraging the scalability and cost advantages of simulation tools. The result is to rapidly produce large yet relatively low-cost multi-fidelity SEPIA networks of computers and routers that let analysts quickly investigate threats and test protection approaches.

The Design for Tractable Analysis (DTA) framework was developed to address the analysis of complex systems and so-called “wicked problems.” DTA is distinctive because it treats analytic processes as key artifacts that can be created and improved through formal design processes. Systems (or enterprises) are analyzed as a whole, in conjunction with decomposing them into constituent elements for domain-specific analyses that are informed by the whole. After using the Systems Modeling Language (SysML) to frame the problem in the context of stakeholder needs, DTA harnesses the Design Structure Matrix (DSM) to structure the analysis of the system and address questions about the emergent properties of the system. The novel use of DSM to “design the analysis” makes DTA particularly suitable for addressing the interdependent nature of complex systems. The use of DTA is demonstrated by a case study of sensor grid placement decisions to secure assets at a fixed site. © 2009, IGI Global. All rights reserved.

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This paper analyzes three simulation architectures from the context of modeling scalability to address System of System (SoS) and Complex System problems. The paper first provides an overview of the SoS problem domain and reviews past work in analyzing model and general system complexity issues. It then identifies and explores the issues of vertical and horizontal integration as well as coupling and hierarchical decomposition as the system characteristics and metrics against which the tools are evaluated. In addition, it applies Nam Suh's Axiomatic Design theory as a construct for understanding coupling and its relationship to system feasibility. Next it describes the application of MATLAB, Swarm, and Umbra (three modeling and simulation approaches) to modeling swarms of Unmanned Flying Vehicle (UAV) agents in relation to the chosen characteristics and metrics. Finally, it draws general conclusions for analyzing model architectures that go beyond those analyzed. In particular, it identifies decomposition along phenomena of interaction and modular system composition as enabling features for modeling large heterogeneous complex systems.

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This document describes the Umbra System representation. Umbra System representation, initially developed in the spring of 2003, is implemented in Incr/Tcl using concepts borrowed from Carnegie Mellon University's Architecture Description Language (ADL) called Acme. In the spring of 2004 through January 2005, System was converted to Umbra 4, extended slightly, and adopted as the underlying software system for a variety of Umbra applications that support Complex Systems Engineering (CSE) and Complex Adaptive Systems Engineering (CASE). System is now a standard part Of Umbra 4. While Umbra 4 also includes an XML parser for System, the XML parser and Schema are not described in this document.

This report describes Umbra's High Level Architecture HLA library. This library serves as an interface to the Defense Simulation and Modeling Office's (DMSO) Run Time Infrastructure Next Generation Version 1.3 (RTI NG1.3) software library and enables Umbra-based models to be federated into HLA environments. The Umbra library was built to enable the modeling of robots for military and security system concept evaluation. A first application provides component technologies that ideally fit the US Army JPSD's Joint Virtual Battlespace (JVB) simulation framework for Objective Force concept analysis. In addition to describing the Umbra HLA library, the report describes general issues of integrating Umbra with RTI code and outlines ways of building models to support particular HLA simulation frameworks like the JVB.

Umbra is a new Sandia-developed modeling and simulation framework. The Umbra framework allows users to quickly build models and simulations for intelligent system development, analysis, experimentation, and control and supports tradeoff analyses of complex robotic systems, device, and component concepts. Umbra links together heterogeneous collections of modeling tools. The models in Umbra include 3D geometry and physics models of robots, devices and their environments. Model components can be built with varying levels of fidelity and readily switched to allow models built with low fidelity for conceptual analysis to be gradually converted to high fidelity models for later phase detailed analysis. Within control environments, the models can be readily replaced with actual control elements. This paper describes Umbra at a functional level and describes issues that Sandia uses Umbra to address.

This paper identifies active research topics concerning human machine interfaces for intelligent machine systems. The paper was compiled by performing a series of literature searches and organizing the information according to the author's interest in better directing his own Human Machine Interface (HMI) research. Introductory literature from outside the HMI communities is also referenced to provide context.

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The Intelligent Systems and Robotics Center (ISRC) at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) is developing technologies for glovebox size reduction in the DOE nuclear complex. A study was performed for Kaiser-Hill (KH) at the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site (RFETS) on the available technologies for size reducing the glovebox lines that require size reduction in place. Currently, the baseline approach to these glovebox lines is manual operations using conventional mechanical cutting methods. The study has been completed and resulted in a concept of the robotic system for in-situ size reduction. The concept makes use of commercially available robots that are used in the automotive industry. The commercially available industrial robots provide high reliability and availability that are required for environmental remediation in the DOE complex. Additionally, the costs of commercial robots are about one-fourth that of the custom made robots for environmental remediation. The reason for the lower costs and the higher reliability is that there are thousands of commercial robots made annually, whereas there are only a few custom robots made for environmental remediation every year. This paper will describe the engineering analysis approach used in the design of the robotic system for glovebox size reduction.