A consistent preliminary design process for mechatronic systems

Abstract

In this paper, a consistent and collaborative preliminary design process for mechatronic systems is described. First, a functional analysis is carried out from user requirements with SysML. This allows one to define suitable architectures and associated test cases. Each of them has to be analysed and optimized separately in order to select the best architecture and the best set of key parameters. The next step of the preliminary design is a modelling of its architecture and its behaviour. In order to merge multi-physical and geometrical parameters, our generic method relies on a topological analysis of the system and generates a set of equations with physical and topological constraints previously defined. Finally, an interval analysis is implemented, allowing one to explore exhaustively the search space resulting from a declarative statement of constraints, in order to optimize the parameters under the constraint of the relevant test cases. An automotive power lift gate scenario has been chosen to test this design process.