Model-Based Requirements Management in Gear Systems Design Based On Graph-Based Design Languages

Abstract

Abstract:For several decades, a wide-spread consensus concerning the enormous importance of an in-depth clarification of the specifications of a product has been observed. A weak clarification of specifications is repeatedly listed as a main cause for the failure of product development projects. Requirements, which can be defined as the purpose, goals, constraints, and criteria associated with a product development project, play a central role in the clarification of specifications. The collection of activities which ensure that requirements are identified, documented, maintained, communicated, and traced throughout the life cycle of a system, product, or service can be referred to as "requirements engineering". These activities can be supported by a collection and combination of strategies, methods, and tools which are appropriate for the clarification of specifications. Numerous publications describe the strategy and the components of requirements management. Furthermore, recent research investigates its industrial application. Simultaneously, promising developments of graph-based design languages for a holistic digital representation of the product life cycle are presented. Current developments realize graph-based languages by the diagrams of the Unified Modelling Language (UML), and allow the automatic generation and evaluation of multiple product variants. The research presented in this paper seeks to present a method in order to combine the advantages of a conscious requirements management process and graph-based design languages. Consequently, the main objective of this paper is the investigation of a model-based integration of requirements in a product development process by means of graph-based design languages. The research method is based on an in-depth analysis of an exemplary industrial product development, a gear system for so-called "Electrical Multiple Units" (EMU). Important requirements were abstracted from a gear system specification list and were analyzed in detail. As a second basis, the research method uses a conscious expansion of graph-based design languages towards their applicability for requirements management. This expansion allows the handling of requirements through a graph-based design language model. The first two results of the presented research consist of a model of the gear system and a detailed model of requirements, both modelled in a graph-based design language. Further results are generated by a combination of the two models into one holistic model.

Executable Cost-Sensitive Product Development of a Self-Balancing Two-Wheel Scooter With Graph-Based Design Languages

“…Deeper analysis of the representation of requirements in graph-based design languages conduct were carried out by Holder et al (2017a). This integrated representation of many domains underlines again the advantages of the application of graph-based design languages.…”

Metamodelling for Design of Mechatronic and Cyber-Physical Systems

“…Requirements modelling-requirements set for the system; a fusion of the adopted business model, law regulations and identified functionalities that are necessary to meet the project's objectives and business goals [4,14,15]; •…”

Design for Monitoring of a Research Vehicle

“…The requirements space is crucial, because requirements are a decisive factor in industrial product and mechatronic design (compare Carryer et al 2010, Holder et al (2017)). Four of ten top risks in projects are linked to requirements (Hruschka (2019)).…”