Survey on mechatronic engineering: A focus on design methods and product models

Abstract

According to the principles of concurrent engineering and integrated design, engineers intend to develop a mechatronic system with a high level integration (functional and physical integrations) based on a well-organised design method. As a result, two main categories of issues have been pointed out: the process-based problems and the design data-related problems. Several approaches to overcome these issues have been put forward. To solve process-based problems, a dynamic perspective is generally used to present how collaboration can be improved during the mechatronic design. For design data-related problems, solutions generally come from product models and how to structure and store the data thanks to the functionality of data and documents management of Product Lifecycle Management systems. To be able to assess design methods and product models, some criteria are proposed in the paper and used to evaluate their added value on integrated design of mechatronic system. After this assessment, main outcomes which focus on the combination of design method and product model for improving the design of mechatronic system are finally discussed.

An Optimization-Based Embodiment Design Approach for Mechatronic Product Development

“…The interfaces among the subsystems of different design domains do not arouse enough attention in this organizational method [29]. An explicit link between the different engineers does not exist.…”

“…In these tasks, the discipline-specific design does not need to be fully integrated on the mechatronic design level. By analyzing the interactions between the design parameters and the functional requirements, it enables an easy qualification on how a product should be designed to reduce unnecessary iteration loops [29]. Different modeling levels have therefore been proposed to reduce iteration loops [30] models based on characteristic diagrams and table data, simple analytical model, finite-element model including nonlinear effects.…”

“…4), it also divides the mechatronic design process in four stages: the system design, the domain-specific design, the system integration and the assurance of properties [29]. During the system design phase, a cross-discipline solution concept is defined for the system.…”

“…This VDI2206 provides a practice-oriented guideline for mechatronic system design which unifies the domainspecific design more systematically [29] but it suffers from several drawbacks:…”

“…The functional modeling methodology means that different methods are used to define a model of any system by capturing and processing the information about its purpose and the functions of its components to fulfill the purpose [29]. This VDI guideline represents a practice-oriented guideline for the systematic development of mechatronic systems and consists of three elements [4] the V-model on the macro level, a general problem-solving cycle on the micro level, and predefined process modules for handling recurrent working steps in the development of mechatronic systems.…”