•We propose a methodology for the architectural design of mechatronic systems.•This methodology is based on the SysML language.•A black-box phase leads to a comprehensive and consistent set of ...requirements.•A white-box phase progressively leads to system architecture.•A case study is provided to test the methodology.
Mechatronic systems are characterized by the synergic interaction between their components from different technological domains. These interactions enable the system to achieve more functionalities than the sum of the functionalities of its components considered independently. Traditional design approaches are no longer adequate and there is a need for new synergic and multidisciplinary design approaches with close cooperation between specialists from different disciplines.
SysML is a general purpose multi-view language for systems modeling and is identified as a support to this work.
In this paper, a SysML-based methodology is proposed. This methodology consists of two phases: a black box analysis with an external point of view that provides a comprehensive and consistent set requirements, and a white box analysis that progressively leads to the internal architecture and behavior of the system.
Recent advances in companies are characterized by highly dynamic, knowledge-intensive and collaborative process. This has become primary concern for mechatronic systems since they involve multiple ...disciplines and knowledge. This requires a close exchange in order to share knowledge between the different design teams. The first step in knowledge sharing is to identify the most important knowledge that need to be capitalized, which we call “crucial knowledge”. During this exchange, heterogeneous knowledge and modelling languages are involved in the design process, which can lead to conflicts. Hence, the challenge is to continuously capture and handle such conflicts between expert models. Thus, the focus of this paper is to propose a new collaborative design model suitable for mechatronic concurrent design. Our contribution lies in identifying crucial knowledge and resolving conflicts in a formal way in order to ensure efficient collaboration. Our methodology called Category Theory-based Collaborative Design (CaTCoD) is described with its associated meta-model. A demonstrator is also used to validate the proposed methodology using an example from the aeronautic field.
In recent decades, there has been a significant increase in systems’ complexity, leading to a rise in the need for more and more models. Models created with different intents are written using ...different formalisms and give diverse system representations. This work focuses on the system engineering domain and its models. It is crucial to assert a critical system’s compliance with its requirements. Thus, multiple models dedicated to these assertions are designed, such as safety or multi-physics models. As those models are independent of the architecture model, we need to provide means to assert and maintain consistency between them if we want the analyses to be relevant. The model synchronization methodologies give means to work on the consistency between the models through steps of abstraction to a common formalism, comparison, and concretization of the comparison results in the original models. This paper proposes a mathematical framework that allows for a formal definition of such a consistency relation and a mathematical description of the models. We use the context of category theory, as this is a mathematical theory providing great tools for taking into account different abstraction levels and composition of relations. Finally, we show how this mathematical framework can be applied to a specific synchronization methodology with a realistic study case.
In mechatronic collaborative design, there is a synergic integration of several expert domains, where heterogeneous knowledge needs to be shared. To address this challenge, ontology-based approaches ...are proposed as a solution to overtake this heterogeneity. However, dynamic exchange between design teams is overlooked. Consequently, parametric-based approaches are developed to use constraints and parameters consistently during collaborative design. The most valuable knowledge that needs to be capitalized, which we call crucial knowledge, is identified with informal solutions. Thus, a formal identification and extraction is required. In this paper, we propose a new methodology to formalize the interconnection between stakeholders and facilitate the extraction and capitalization of crucial knowledge during the collaboration, based on the mathematical theory ‘Category Theory’ (CT). Firstly, we present an overview of most used methods for crucial knowledge identification in the context of collaborative design as well as a brief review of CT basic concepts. Secondly, we propose a methodology to formally extract crucial knowledge based on some fundamental concepts of category theory. Finally, a case study is considered to validate the proposed methodology.
The main objective of this paper is the integration of safety analysis in a SysML-based systems engineering approach in order to make it more effective and efficient. It helps to ensure the ...consistency between safety analyses and system design and then to avoid late errors and to reduce system development time. To achieve this purpose, we tackled the following axes: 1) formalizing a SysML-based design methodology that will be the support for safety analyses; 2) providing an extension of SysML to enable the integration of specific needs for safety concepts in the system model; and 3) performing an automated exploration of the SysML models to generate necessary information to elaborate safety artifacts such as failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) and fault tree analysis (FTA). The proposed methodology named safety integration in systems engineering (SafeSysE) is applied to a real case study from the aeronautics domain: electromechanical actuator (EMA).
The development of a mechatronic system involves different designers having various viewpoints on the overall system to handle its complexity. Consequently, multiple models are created from a variety ...of domains such as mechanical, electronic, and software engineering. These models use different formalisms, modeling languages, and tools to address specific concerns. The major challenge of this approach is to identify and solve any potential inconsistency between models in order to minimize costs and development time before the verification and validation phases. This paper proposes a new collaborative methodology to maintain consistency between different engineering disciplines at an early stage of the development cycle of mechatronic systems based on Model-Based Engineering (MBE). We apply a model synchronization approach to actively check for model consistency in a continuous way during the multidisciplinary design process. As a novel contribution of this paper, we demonstrate how model transformation techniques can be employed; firstly, to abstract various engineering models in a common formalism based on graph theory and, secondly, to update models with appropriate changes evaluated by a project manager. We also show how to detect the differences automatically, and we discuss where designer decisions are essential.
Nowadays, several manufacturing systems are evolving towards a greater collaboration between human and robots. The development of such systems requires integrated design tasks involving many ...disciplines and domains such as systems engineering, safety analyses and multi-physics. Furthermore, the increasing presence of multiple and structured requirements makes the use of models inevitable during the designing phases and also strongly helpful during other phases of the system life-cycle. Besides, for a better efficiency, there is an increasing demand to have a Digital Twin of the system to be used for different purposes such as design improvements by playing different scenarios, virtual commissioning and controlling maintenance activities. In this paper, we first summarize the research context, the reference methodologies, and the emerging needs for Digital Twin creation. Then, we apply a design approach including Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE), Model-Based Safety Assessment (MBSA) and multi-physics modeling for the design of a collaborative workplace for the assembly of Electro-Mechanical Actuators on an aircraft wing. An operational flow to integrate MBSE, MBSA and multi-physics modelling activities is provided. Then, after having identified some relevant scientific barriers, we provide a meta-model for system models integration within a digital twin framework.
Due to the multitude of disciplines involved in mechatronic design, heterogeneous languages and expert models are used to describe the system from different domain-specific views. Despite their ...heterogeneity, these models are highly interrelated. As a consequence, conflicts among expert models are likely to occur. In order to ensure that these models are not contradictory, the necessity to detect and manage conflicts among the models arises. Detecting these inconsistencies at an early stage significantly reduces the amount of engineering activities re-execution. Therefore, to deal with this issue, a formal framework relying upon mathematical concepts is required. The mathematical theory, namely category theory (CT), is considered as an efficient tool to provide a formal and unifying framework supporting conflict detection and management. This paper proposes a comprehensive methodology that allows conflict detection and resolution in the context of mechatronic collaborative design. CT is used in order to explicitly capture the inconsistencies occurred between the disparate expert models. By means of this theory, the conflicts can be detected and handled in an easy and formal way. Our proposed approach is applied to a collaborative scenario concerning the electro-mechanical actuator (EMA) of the aileron.
The behavior of mechatronics systems has a very complex inter-relation between several components, depending on the magnitudes of their parameters and variables. To ensure a certain level of quality ...and to improve design robustness, the deviations between actual and target definition should be restricted by specified tolerances. The upper and lower limits of these values must be wisely determined. Moreover, the deviation margin of variables should be controlled to evaluate system performance in regard to the specifications, requirements and user needs. In this paper, a variational approach is used to evaluate the impact of parameters' deviation on the system behavior. It consists of defining the relationship between parameters' tolerances and variables' fluctuations. This method helps designers to identify the sensitivity of system performances to parameter variations and can, thus, help the designer to attain a compromise between system performance and manufacturing cost in mechatronic systems. The proposed methodology is explained with an example in the aeronautic field, namely an electromechanical actuator driving an aileron which is an aircraft primary flight control surface. This method is general and it can be adapted for other mechatronic systems. The results show that the proposed method affords a new way for determining mechatronic tolerances.
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