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Behavioural representation and simulation of design concepts for systematic conceptual design of mechatronic systems using Petri Nets

The systematic representation of design concepts is an important requirement for computational support during the conceptual design stage within the process of product development. Behavioural simulation of design concepts is used as a systematic representation framework, and behavioural representation is based on modelling and simulating the behaviour of a design artefact at the conceptual level to perform an overall function, leading to behaviour-based conceptual design. The behaviour-based conceptual design approach is critical for mechatronic systems since they require synergistic integration starting from the initial conceptual design phase. The present study is focused on behavioural representation and simulation of design concepts via discrete event system specification formalism and Petri Nets so as to contribute to systematic conceptual design in mechatronic systems. The paper introduces a representation framework for the behaviour-based conceptual design of mechatronic systems and its implementation on five selected case studies, among laboratory-level educational robots. In addition to Petri Net modelling and computer simulations, the implementation also includes physical simulations of the intended operational behaviours for educational robots on a distributed physical structure called the ‘desktop design model’. In this paper, implementation on one of these case studies, namely the ‘frog robot’, is presented in detail.

Petri net modeling and simulation of walking behaviour for design of a bioinspired robot dog

Research in behavior-based design faces many challenges regarding the aids in conceptual design of biorobots, representation of a biological systems behavior in a well formed modeling tool and therefore providing systematic transformation of this behavior into robot design. This paper reports a research that focuses on the development of a Petri Net model to represent a biological systems behavior. The model is based on real time data collected from an experiment in which a dog is walking on a treadmill with a speed of 1km/h. The model has the ability of simulating the real time rhythm of dogs walking behavior utilizing colors and numbers as well as the step-by-step simulation. The aim is to observe the behavior of a walking dog in time domain as an early stage of conceptual design of a bioinspired robot dog. Main challenge is to develop a methodology to guide designer towards more creative designs based on bioinspired design ideas. The presented work is an early attempt to initiate a systematic approach towards the stated goal.