Development of Self-Optimizing Systems: Domain-Spanning and Domain-Specific Models Exemplified by an Air Gap Adjustment System for Autonomous Vehicles Available to Purchase

Future mechanical engineering systems will consist of configurations of many highly distributed system elements with inherent partial intelligence. The complexity of self optimizing systems will grow enormously. These complex mechanical systems are characterized by the strong integration of the domains mechanical-, electrical-, control-, and software-engineering. One of the main problems while developing such a system is the coordinated way of specifying the overall systems specification and the systematic way of mapping this overall specification in the specific domains. In this paper we present the end to end development of a self-optimizing air gap adjustment system, beginning with the overall specification towards the domain-specific approach of the software engineering. First, we show the overall specification by the so called “principle solution”. Basing on this principle solution we specify the software of the system. Additional to the self-optimizing aspect, we consider also safety aspects which are typical for these systems, too.