Petra Winzer

Demand-Compliant Design

In this paper, we describe, in detail, a design method that assures that the designed product satisfies a set of prescribed demands while, at the same time, providing a concise representation of the design that facilitates communication in multidisciplinary design teams. This Demand Compliant Design (DeCoDe) method was in itself designed to comply with a set of demands. The demands on the method were determined by an analysis of some of the most widely used design methods and from the needs arising in the practice of design for quality. We show several modes of use of the DeCoDe method and illustrate with examples.

Demand compliant design of robotic systems

The scarcity of methods for generating innovation systematically, quickly and without mistakes is felt across the technology intensive industries. An emerging autonomous robot industry produce the most complex artefacts ever made and stands to benefit most from effective design methods. In previous work, we described a framework for demand compliant design based on the existence of a demand catalogue and a method specific design database. In this paper, we show how to apply the method to an efficient exploration of design space starting a small and ill defined set of demands. Both the demand catalogue and design data are generated iteratively during the design process. We illustrate this process with the design of a hearing module for robots.

Systems engineering: old ideas, new potential

The world appears to us as complex and difficult to comprehend. Millennia of accumulated human experience were necessary to assemble the picture of our world that we have today. The purpose of general, systems theory, is to formulate concepts and methods for analysing complex situations, processes and structures irrespective of their specific nature. At times the concepts of general systems theory appear too general to be useful. In this context it is important to remember that the purpose of these concepts is to provide us with a generic skeleton that we can adapt to the specific situation under analysis. It is like a master plan that lays out the general architecture for a construction. It helps in finding the most appropriate overall layout from which we can proceed with confidence to work out the details. We will show in this paper, how we can solve problems in general.

Mastering complexity in robot design

This paper describes a general procedure for the requirement compliant design of robots and how design knowledge can be captured and correlated with the stakeholder demands. The key part of the method is to make an inventory of the stakeholder demands. We have created a structured list of demands for toy and educational robots based on a survey of product currently on the market. With this list it is possible to associate robot structures, functions and processes to the various demands. Thus the designer can determine which demands relate to which structure functions and processes and vice versa what requirements are affected by a given structure, function or process.

Methodic Design of Robot Vision Systems

In this paper we use the design of an innovative on-board vision system for a small commercial minirobotto demonstrate the application of a demand compliant design (DeCoDe) method. Vision systems are amongst the most complex sensor systems both in nature and in engineering and thus provide an excellent arena for testing design methods. A review of current design methods for mechatronic systems shows that there are no methods that support or require a complete description of the product system. The DeCoDe method is a step towards overcoming this deflciencty. The minirobot robot design is carried from the generic vision system level down to first refinement for a minirobot vision system for visual navigation.

Using systems engineering for a requirement-based design support for autonomous robots.

Rising Complexity is a major challenge for the development of product systems. The aim of handling this complexity is to achieve a high quality, to develop and produce at acceptable cost and to prevent unintended incidents like failures. Especially in the field of robotics it is a serious task to fulfill these requirements regarding tasks of the autonomous orientation in a dynamic product surrounding etc. In addition, these robots, e.g. an autonomous vacuum cleaner, must meet a certain price segment. For this complex challenge the Generic System Engineering (GSE), which is based on a common model of thinking and standardized procedure, is focused on. Based on the system thinking an idea is developed for an approach to handle the aforementioned challenges. This idea includes a combination of a system model and a procedure to achieve a requirements fulfilling design without an over-design to prevent high costs by limit the considerate part of system over functionality.

Probleme bei der Entwicklung mechatronischer Systeme

Kurzfassung Durch die zunehmende Integration verschiedener Fachdisziplinen werden stetig die Anzahl der Schnittstellen und somit die Komplexität der Produktentwicklung erhöht. Die daraus resultierenden Probleme treten jedoch oft erst in späteren Phasen in Form von Fehlern zutage. Die konsequente Ausrichtung an Anforderungen sowie der Einsatz und die Kopplung von Methoden und Simulationen werden vielfach als Verbesserungspotenzial der Produktentwicklung wahrgenommen. Anhand einer Industriebefragung von Herstellern mechatronischer Systeme werden die Ergebnisse für das Anwendungsfeld intralogistischer Anlagen diskutiert.

Using systems engineering for improving autonomous robot performance

Handling complexity is a major challenge for the development of product systems, especially in the field of autonomous robots. Considering the production system of such an autonomous robot, which is more and more realized by collaborative System of Systems (SoS), increases the complexity. To manage this complexity, a systematic approach is necessary. The following paper describes an approach to analyze and derive design recommendations based on the principles of Generic Systems Engineering (GSE). This approach uses a common model of thinking, a unified system model and a standardized procedure to develop a system. The system model is actualized within the procedure and allows a problem localization for further design changes. A simplification is achieved by limiting the considerate part of system over functionalities.

Approach for structuring the product environment for a systematic analysis of field data

The Development of complex products in a satisfactory way is a difficult task. This is confirmed by the increasing number of recalls and customer complaints. In order to achieve a high product quality, different approaches were developed; one is the Generic System Engineering (GSE), a method that fits the complex product system in a standardized system model. The product system is in fact influenced to a high degree by the environment. To consider this impact, this paper discusses the structuring of the environment into processes and locations and their influences to the product system. This allows the systematic use of field data to limit the quantity of elements and their interaction in the processes and locations in order to improve the process of problem-solving. The benefit is to learn from mistakes in the context of the GSE. This supports cause-analysis, effect-analysis and therefore the enhancement of product systems.

Changeability of requirements — Usable indicators for product development

The reuse of information and knowledge is an established principle for designing variants of a mechatronic product subject to changing requirements. To assist in the application of this principle a new way of classifying requirements into changeable and unchangeable is introduced. This approach focuses on those requirements that remain unchanged and are therefore associated with design knowledge that can be reused. From the set of changeable and unchangeable requirements indicators are derived to assess the effort needed for the development of a new variant. This, in turn, aids in choosing an appropriate product variant as the starting point for the development of a new variant, such that the development, production and service effort is reduced.