An Interdisciplinary Approach to Functional Prototyping for Mechatronic Systems using Multi-Domain Simulation with Model-Based Debugging

Automotive products carry a high level of mechatronic (electromechanical) components. Mechanical operations are controlled by embedded software that runs on electronic devices. The ever increasing complexity of electronic products of modern cars like drive-by-wire systems means that a very broad range of simulation must be used in the early phases of the development process to predict the product characteristics. However, the activities in the preparative development departments of leading german car manufactures show the challenges by the development of mechatronic products and the need for simulation of mechatronic systems. For an early validation of vehicle functionalities a range of special simulators is used for specific domains like mechanics, electronics and software. To provide timely simulation, review and debugging for complete mechatronic components, these simulators need first to be coupled with one another to have an interdisciplinary behavior. The objective of our interdisciplinary approach to functional prototyping is the development of a framework for the cooperative development, validation and debugging of complex mechatronic system behavior. Therefore our approach presents an interdisciplinary model-based debugger. The feasibility of our approach is shown by a case study that demonstrates functional prototyping of an automotive mechatronic system.