JPL collaborated with experts from industry and other organizations to develop a conceptual model of quantities, units, dimensions, and values based on the current work of the ISO 80000 committee revising the International System of Units & Quantities based on the International Vocabulary of Metrology (VIM). By providing support for ISO 80000 in SysML via the International Vocabulary of Metrology (VIM), this conceptual model provides, for the first time, a standard-based approach for addressing issues of unit coherence and dimensional analysis into the practice of systems engineering with SysMLbased tools. This conceptual model provides support for two kinds of analyses specified in the International Vocabulary of Metrology (VIM): coherence of units as well as of systems of units, and dimension analysis of systems of quantities.

The key abstractions defined in the conceptual model of Quantities, Units, Dimensions and Values (QUDV) based on normative references in ISO 80000-1:2009, and an excerpt of its application for the SI Units and Quantities as defined in ISO 8000-1:2009, in NIST's Reference on Constants, Units and Uncertainty, and in the IEEE/ASTM American National Standards for Metric Practice SI-10™ 2010.
To provide a solid and stable foundation, the model for defining quantities, units, dimensions, and values in SysML is explicitly based on the concepts defined in VIM. At the same time, the model library is designed in such a way that extensions to the ISQ (International System of Quantities) and SI Units (Systeme International d’Unites) can be represented, as well as any alternative systems of quantities and units.

The model library can be used to support SysML user models in various ways. A simple approach is to define and document libraries of reusable systems of units and quantities for reuse across multiple projects, and to link units and quantity kinds from these libraries to Unit and QuantityKind stereotypes defined in SysML user models.

This work was done by Nicolas F. Rouquette of Caltech, Hans-Peter DeKoenig of the European Space Agency, Roger Burkhart of Deere & Company, and Huascar Espinoza of the French Centre of Atomic Energy for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. For more information, contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The software used in this innovation is available for commercial licensing. Please contact Daniel Broderick of the California Institute of Technology at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. NPO-47251