Reference:
A.A. Alvarez Cabrera,
M.J. Foeken,
O.A. Tekin,
K. Woestenenk,
M.S. Erden,
B. De Schutter,
M.J.L. van Tooren,
R. Babuska,
F.J.A.M. van Houten, and
T. Tomiyama,
"Towards automation of control software: A review of challenges in
mechatronic design," Mechatronics, vol. 20, no. 8, pp.
876-886, Dec. 2010.
Abstract:
Development of mechatronic systems requires collaboration among
experts from different design domains. In this paper the authors
identify a set of challenges related to the design of mechatronic
systems. The challenges are mostly related to integration of design
and analysis tools, and automation of current design practices.
Addressing these challenges enables the adoption of a concurrent
development approach in which the synergetic effects that characterize
mechatronic systems are taken into account during design. The main
argument is that in order to deal with software development problems
for complex mechatronic systems, there is a need to look at system
design practices beyond concurrency, i.e., there is a need to consider
the complex interdependencies among subsystems and the designers that
develop them. A review on current methods and tools is carried out to
identify possible solutions proposed in previous works. The purpose is
not to make an extensive review, but to show that integration, from
different points of view, is a major issue and that increasing the
level of abstraction in the description of systems can help to
overcome the integration challenges. An increased level of abstraction
also forms a basis for addressing other issues in mechatronic product
development, which are presented in this work. With that in mind,
concepts for an integration framework are proposed. The goal of the
framework is to support a multi-disciplinary design team to (almost)
automatically generate and verify control software. Based on
high-level architectural descriptions, the software generation and
verification process can be supported by knowledge-based methods and
tools. Other goals are to support communication among engineers,
improve reliability of designs, increase reuse of design knowledge,
and reduce development time and development costs.