A method for interactively composing mechatronic prototypes in virtual environment. (30th April 2007)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Shen, Qing; Grafe, Michael; Bauch, Jochen; Radkowski, Rafael
• Is Part Of: International journal of product development. Volume 4:Number 6(2007)
• Page Start: 587
• Page End: 604
• Publication Date: 2007-04-30
• Subjects: solution elements -- ports -- joints -- virtual prototyping -- system composition -- mechatronics -- virtual reality -- product development -- product design -- modelling -- conceptual design -- visualisation -- teamwork; New products -- Periodicals; Technological innovations -- Periodicals; Research, Industrial -- Periodicals; 658.57505
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1477-9056

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.