Modelling Information for Mechatronic Products

Journal article, 2003

In mechatronic product development, there is a lack of a common understanding among different engineering domains, regarding the design. One step in improving this situation is to develop information models capable of representing both hardware and software elements. The objective of this paper is to investigate the Chromosome Model’s ability with respect to the mechatronic product and also to suggest an information model which implements its principles. The approach takes its point of departure on a theoretical level by analysing theories from mechanical and software engineering. Further, software concepts of relevance are incorporated into the Chromosome Model. The result, referred to as a meta model, is then transformed to an information model by utilising STEP AP214. Both the meta model and the information model are validated with an industrial example. The conclusions drawn from the work are that the Chromosome Model can be used as a meta model for mechatronic products and that STEP AP214 can be deployed within the scope of the meta model. The resulting information model captures the functional, causal and spatial relationships of a mechatronic product.