Collaborative MBSE Design Method for Context Boundaries

ChangeBridge: Patent Grants - Business Methods (G06Q)

Published March 31st, 2026

Detected March 31st, 2026

Summary

USPTO granted Patent US12591853B2 to Rockwell Collins, Inc. covering a method for collaborative design on context boundaries in model-based systems engineering (MBSE) tools. The patent enables customers and suppliers to maintain synchronized copies of a collaborative portion of a system model for cadenced data exchange and modification propagation.

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What changed

USPTO issued Patent US12591853B2 to Rockwell Collins on March 31, 2026, covering a method for collaborative design of a system of interest (SoI) in an MBSE framework. The invention allows a customer system and supplier system to identify a collaborative portion within a modeled artifact, defined by a context boundary, where data exchanges and modifications will occur. Both parties package their shareable portions into bundles and synchronize changes through cadenced exchange of customer-owned and supplier-owned copies of the collaborative portion.

This is a routine patent grant providing intellectual property protection for Rockwell Collins' collaborative MBSE design methodology. No compliance action is required by third parties. Companies developing or licensing MBSE tools for aerospace or defense supply chain applications should note this patent when designing collaborative workflows involving context boundaries and customer-supplier data synchronization.

Source document (simplified)

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Method for collaborative design on context boundaries in model-based tools

Grant US12591853B2 Kind: B2 Mar 31, 2026

Assignee

Rockwell Collins, Inc.

Inventors

Melinda G. Refford, Loris Dal Lago, Luigi Di Guglielmo

Abstract

A method for collaborative design of a system of interest (SoI) in a model-based systems engineering (MBSE) framework models the system into an artifact including customer-owned and supplier-owned portions. The customer system identifies a collaborative portion within the artifact, shared by both customer and supplier, wherein data exchanges and modifications to the SoI will take place, the collaborative portion defined by a context boundary. The customer and supplier package their respective shareable portions of the SoI into bundles including the customer-initiated collaborative portion and a supplier-owned copy. Further modifications to the SoI may be implemented via cadenced synchronization of the customer-owned and supplier-owned copies of the collaborative portion to exchange, accept, and propagate successive changes initiated by either party.