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Function modelling is proposed in textbooks to support solution finding early in a development process. Although it has great potential to support the comprehensiveness and systematisation of conceptual design, it has been taken up in design practice only to a limited extent. Based on a literature review, potential barriers hampering its widespread application are discussed. A central problem revolves around the abstract nature of function modelling, which makes it difficult to apprehend the concrete benefits from its implementation. The article contributes to related research by showcasing success stories in the implementation of function modelling in six companies. The implemented models include morphological charts, use case modelling and two approaches developed in-house. The paper presents an interview study with managers and design leaders investigating the motivations and reasons leading up to the decision to newly implement function modelling in the companies. Furthermore, the paper explores the interviewees’ reflections on experiences gained while (gradually) implementing function models, the specific advantages attained, and also the challenges faced in doing so. The findings show that shared function modelling has great potential to support interdisciplinary collaboration and comprehension and to lead to a significant increase in the efficiency of the design process. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Parallel structure robots have been receiving growing attentions from both academia and industries in recent years. This is due to their advantages over serial structure robots, such as high stiffness, high motion accuracy and high load-structure ratio. Control of a parallel robot, however, renders a difficult problem to control engineers. To obtain the same degrees of freedom (DOF), a parallel structure is more complex than a serial one, and so is its dynamic model in general. To effectively control a complex mechanical structure for precise and fast performance, an advanced controller embedded with the system''s dynamic model is usually desired. In cases of controlling parallel robots, however, the intensive computation due to the complexity of the dynamic model can result in difficulties in the physical implementations of the controllers for high-speed performance. To avoid heavy computation, simplified dynamic models can be obtained by applying simplification techniques, nevertheless, performance accuracy will suffer due to modeling errors. This paper suggests applying a general mechatronics design approach, i.e., the design for control (DFC) approach, to handle this problem. The underlying idea of the DFC approach is that, no matter how complex a system is, as long as its mechanical structure can be judiciously designed such that it can result in a simple dynamic model, a simple control algorithm may be good enough for a satisfactory control performance. As such, complicated controller design can be avoided, on-line computation load can be reduced and better control performance can be achieved. Through out the discussion in the paper, the design and control of a two DOF parallel robot is studied as an illustration example. Resulted control performances of several different mechanical designs derived from the same robot structure topology demonstrate the effectiveness of the DFC approach. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Despite a world-wide interest in mechatronics education, there is no clear and consistent understanding of what mechatronics is, nor how, and at what level, it should be taught. The key challenge for mechatronics course designers is seen as that of ensuring an appropriate balance between depth and breadth while providing opportunities to enable students to practise integration. The paper discusses this in relation to a number of mechatronic themes. Factors influencing the design, structure and content of a mechatronics programme are discussed and suggestions made as to the possible core content of such a programme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern mechatronic product design should be based on extensive digital mockup. This is particularly important for the early stages within the design process. Unfortunately, there is still a lack of integrated tools for modelling and simulation in these stages. This paper describes, based on a reference architecture of mechatronic products, some tools for modelling technical components as well as for information processing components. It is pointed out that possibly the bondgraph approach combined with the statechart concept may serve as a suite of tools for the early stage design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]