cs.ROAug 10, 2026

Model-Based Systems Engineering Framework for SysML-Driven Design of Autonomous UAVs

Authors: Deekshitha Angadi, Naveena Budda, Vikas Agarwal, Mohamed Samshad, Bharath Kumar Suryadevara, Narsimlu Kemsaram

Organizations: AIR Lab, UAVs Group, Autonomous Robotics Systems Limited, Hyderabad, India · Department of Microelectronics and VLSI Design, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, India · Department of IoT, Ideabytes Software India Private Limited, Hyderabad, India · School of Computer Science, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA · Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India · Department of System Engineering, Akkodis AS&D GmbH, Bremen, Germany · Department of Artificial Intelligence, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Abstract

Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are complex cyber-physical systems that require the coordinated integration of flight control, navigation, perception, communication, power management, and mission-level decision-making under safety, timing, and reliability constraints. However, many autonomous UAV development workflows still rely on document-centric requirements, separated architectural descriptions, and software implementation artifacts, which can lead to ambiguity, interface inconsistencies, and weak traceability during early design. This paper presents a Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) design framework for the SysML-driven development of autonomous UAVs. The proposed framework uses the Systems Modeling Language (SysML) as a formal design backbone to structure UAV development across four connected layers: stakeholder requirements, functional decomposition, logical architecture, and physical/software allocation. SysML requirement diagrams, activity diagrams, block definition diagrams, internal block diagrams, state machine diagrams, and parametric diagrams are used to capture the functional, structural, behavioral, interface, and performance aspects of the UAV system. The logical architecture is then systematically mapped to a Robot Operating System 2 (ROS 2) software architecture by relating SysML blocks to ROS 2 nodes, flow ports and connectors to topics, request-response interactions to services, and goal-oriented behaviors to actions. The framework is illustrated at the design level using representative autonomous UAV mission scenarios, including autonomous take-off, waypoint navigation, hover stabilization, obstacle avoidance, return-to-home, and emergency handling. The resulting model supports requirement allocation, interface definition, subsystem responsibility assignment, and verification planning before simulation or physical deployment.

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