Title: A method for interactively composing mechatronic prototypes in virtual environment

Authors: Qing Shen, Michael Grafe, Jochen Bauch, Rafael Radkowski

Addresses: Heinz Nixdorf Institute, University of Paderborn, Germany. ' Heinz Nixdorf Institute, University of Paderborn, Germany. ' Heinz Nixdorf Institute, University of Paderborn, Germany. ' Heinz Nixdorf Institute, University of Paderborn, Germany

Abstract: Virtual Prototyping (VP) technology has been widely used to reduce the cost in the development of modern products. However, a typical mechatronic product includes the components from different engineering domains and its complexity keeps on increasing. Therefore, it becomes a great challenge to efficiently achieve VP of mechatronic products. A solution presented in this paper chooses Solution Elements (SE) as the basic design component, which encapsulates various engineering expertise. In addition, a conceptual model of ports and joints are created to compose those virtual components into mechatronic prototypes in a virtual environment. To reveal the achievement of our solution, this paper will concretely explicate (1) the definition of the conceptual models of SE, ports and joints; (2) the procedure and the matching guide in doing the system composition; (3) some interaction and visualisation issues to SE, ports and joints and (4) how team work is supported in the implementation work.

Keywords: solution elements; ports; joints; virtual prototyping; system composition; mechatronics; virtual reality; product development; product design; modelling; conceptual design; visualisation; teamwork.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPD.2007.013433

International Journal of Product Development, 2007 Vol.4 No.6, pp.587 - 604

Published online: 28 Apr 2007 *

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