Knowledge-Based Development of Mechatronic Products

The development of mechatronic products, which are composed of mechanical and non mechanical elements and components, is a special challenge for interdisciplinary and geographically distributed engineering teams. Efficiency and quality of such development processes can significantly be increased by methods and tools, which help to cope with the different tasks of early design stages and rule the occurring complexity. Being aware of this facts, two interacting software applications have been developed, realizing a knowledge-based approach in the field of mechatronics. ModCoDe (modeling system for conceptual design) enables engineers of different disciplines to create a comprehensive mechatronic concept, based on so called “wirk”-structures. WISENT(system for knowledge archiving and processing) supports this iterative concept creation by providing relevant information and knowledge. Beyond this, these systems can be coupled with commercial simulation software like MATLAB/Simulink, which allows evaluation of the generated results.