I think mechatronics generally begins with mechanical design. That’s just my perspective, it may differ in your experience. If its a power window in a car, a hard disk drive platter machine, a blender, an amusement park ride or display, a surgical robot, whatever. They all start with mechanical design, performance goals and boundary conditions that are required for the mechanical system to be useful.
This is why there needs to be great emphasis on the design of software tools that are extensions to the 2D and 3D CAD products that are currently available. Obviously, if you are engaged in mechanical design, you are in a unique position to the final outcome of the design project. The mechanical design work sets the boundary conditions of what is possible.
If the design is all steel and heavy components, then the speed and throughput of the design will be limited. But the same design work in aluminum will be 1/3 the weight and it will be possible to increase speed and acceleration at the same time as cost for the motor drive will be reduced. Seems counterintuitive, but it works.
But the it doesn’t end with mechanical design and that’s where we all get tied up. Is there a definable process for doing this kind of design work? There are some commonalities in the machinery building community, but there are wide variations at the same time. So for software companies, it gets harder to go to the next level to create value for their customers.
The design process is iterative. So there’s a clue. What can we do to speed up the design process and improve the outcomes? Simulation. Take the output of the designed components and apply animation rules to the 3D solids which are very well characterized in the software. By using computer technology to dynamically simulate the behavior of the design before its built. Just like the prototyping process, you can find out a lot of really useful information while the simulation is running, early in the design cycle and without the cost of building and exercising prototypes.
Mind-blowing! You can do “What-if” all day at low cost and in very little time. So this is clearly the way to go. And engineering software companies are currently engaged in process of creating these products. But the fun is only just beginning. What happens when the products we create have to be manufactured?
There are a number of complex issues in the manufacturing and product documentation realm that become very complex without software tools to help with the tasking. New software products are being created to help integrate wire harness integration in automotive assemblies. Circuit boards can be modeled ast 3D solid objects for the purpose of integration with packaging.
How many new discipline-bridging applications can you think of? Plenty. The next decade of engineering software is going to be really interesting with all the possibilities in play.
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