A Multi-Disciplinary Modeling Technique for Requirements Management in Mechatronic Systems Engineering

Abstract

Machines and plants continuously increase in complexity due to higher customer expectations regarding their purpose and flexibility of use. For this reason, machines and plants development processes need to adapt continuously to the present situation. In addition, the growing meaning of electronic and software components in machines and plants complicates the engineering since the interaction of different disciplines leads to increasing coordination efforts and problems regarding the interface between these disciplines. To face these challenges, the suitable handling of arising requirements is one key factor for the success of engineering processes. Therefore, a multi-disciplinary modeling technique for requirements management is presented in this paper. After a summary of approaches for model-based development and requirements management in the context of mechatronic systems engineering, the modeling technique with its concepts, terms, tasks and workflows is illustrated. To demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach, the modeling technique was applied to a miniaturized packaging plant, which is currently developed at the Institute for Machine Tools and Industrial Management (iwb) of Technische Universität München for teaching students and benchmarking engineering methods and tools. Finally, an outlook with extensions of the concept for fault-tolerant systems and the integration of further engineering tools in order to promote a consistent engineering tool-chain is given.