Concept of an Assisting Tool in the Design and Development Process of a Product with the CPS – Case Study

Abstract

The work concerns the concept of assisting software supporting the design process of a selected class of the CPS (Cyber-Physical System) – a tractor drive system. The task was carried out in a process-oriented convention. The paper presents the characteristics of individual stages of the design task – the design of the tractor transmission electronic unit treated as a design case. To the classic substantive-model-staged narration, the characteristics of existing, acquired, developed and used personal knowledge of designers have been added. Attention was paid to the process, product models, requirements and constraints, aspects of analysis and synthesis, automation tools, and wider contexts of particular issues. The material collected in terms of the personal knowledge served to create the concept of an assistive system for designers to improve the design process through more precise and problem-dedicated knowledge and design models management. The proposed concept is based on design knowledge modelling and can be applied in the design process of the CPS or its elements.

Concept of a Multi-Criteria and Multi-Disciplinary Design Activity Supporting Tool in the Design and Development Process of CPS

“…The subject matter knowledge and individual preferences of designers determine which models, and at what level of model accuracy, will be used in a given case. This knowledge should be acquired, stored, and reused [1,2,12].…”

“…It has to be noted that all these steps are accompanied by the intensive mental work of the designers aiming to build a design process composed of specific design activities based on related tools [1,2]. As a result, each of the design activities [2] considered as necessary is implemented at a specific, preconceived level of model accuracy -initially in a more general form and in subsequent iterations in a more tailored, sometimes more detailed form.…”

“…The presented work was created as a result of the analysis of materials and retrospective threads related to a previously realized design of a control unit for selected systems of a tractor and, in particular, the tractor transmission box (TCU) [1,2]. The control unit, under design with the tractor, is a typical CPS class system.…”

“…The control unit, under design with the tractor, is a typical CPS class system. The threads observed in the course of the project [1] and considered in the design analysis of the TCU concerned two main aspects: the observed degree of substantive correctness of the performed design activities and the intentionality and evolution of these activities in selected, strictly defined directions of the development of the entire project. The evolution of the design activities was primarily due to the shortcomings of the methods and approaches known to the designers at the beginning of the project.…”

“…Our previous works [1,2] focused on knowledge modelling issues applied to the project under analysis. This knowledge formed the basis for the creation and implementation of the design project process subjected to the presented analysis.…”