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

Abstract

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.

Keywords:

• behaviour-based conceptual design
• Petri Net
• discrete event system specification (DEVS)
• design simulation
• mechatronic design

Acknowledgements

This study has been supported by ATILIM University Research Grant, Scientific Research Programme-BAP (Project No: ATÜ-BAP-1011-07, Project Title: Behaviour Based Modelling for Conceptual Robot Design and Desktop Design of Educational Robots) and TUBITAK-The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (Project No: TUBITAK 109M379, Project Title: Development of biomimetic design methodology with reverse engineering in cognitive recognition and control of biomimetic robots – A joint project between the Department of Mechatronics Engineering, ATILIM University, Turkey and University of Craiova, Romania).