Automated conceptual design of mechatronic systems

Since many years the need for controlled electro-mechanical systems with more flexibility, higher performance and higher reliability is increasing. It was recognised that these systems require coherent design activities of several disciplines. These developments led to the introduction of mechatronics. Especially in the conceptual design stage of electro-mechanical systems, a mechatronic design approach can be applied successfully. Automated design support for this approach has been developed on basis of an existing design method for a large class of mechatronic systems. This method determines the functional interaction between different domain specific subsystems. Automated model reduction and model simplification algorithms are applied to convert the system model of a proposed design to a standard form required by this method. The functional interaction is implemented by means of constraints. Dependencies between the subsystems can be visualised in several ways, using constraint satisfaction techniques. The resulting support puts emphasis on the interpretation of the results instead of the application of procedures. It quickly provides insight in the design problem and estimates feasible goals and required design efforts at an early stage.