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Mechatronics is the close interaction of mechanics, electronics, control engineering and software engineering. The increasing complexity of mechatronic systems results in a challenging development process and particularly requires a consistent comprehension of the tasks between all the engineers involved. Especially during the early design phases, the communication and cooperation between the mechanical, electrical, control and software engineers is necessary to establish a basis for efficient and effective product development. The approach of Model-Based Systems Engineering focuses on this aspect by means of an abstract but superordinate system model. It enables a holistic view of the system. The system model can be specified using the Systems Modeling Language (SysML). The language allows many degrees of freedom to specify a fact, bearing in mind that different system architects can specify the same fact in different ways. This leads to system models that can be interpreted in many ways. Thus, these models are hard to consistently compare and interpret, resulting in communication issues. In order to tackle this problem, we present a concept that uses modeling rules supporting model comparability. We formalize them by means of checks implemented in the programming language Java and the Object Constraint Language (OCL) in order to automatically verify the system model’s compliance with these rules.

The development of cyber-physical systems requires close cooperation between stakeholders from different disciplines. Model-based systems engineering support this by the design of a system model. Non-identified domain knowledge by the stakeholders is a challenge when creating the system model. The CONSENS 3D-Modeling Method supports the domain-independent elicitation of domain knowledge using a 3D environment and enables the derivation of a SysML system model. We applyed the method by implementing a prototype, called 3D Engineer, to an application example from the automotive industry.

Mechatronics — the symbiotic cooperation of mechanics, electrics/electronics, control engineering and software engineering — opens up more and more fascinating perspectives for the development of future mechanical engineering products. Still, development of mechatronic systems remains a challenge. To cope with this challenge a new domain-spanning design methodology for mechatronic systems is needed. This contribution presents a design methodology, which consists of a specification technique for the domain-spanning description of the principle solution of an advanced mechatronic system, a procedure model, which defines the constituent steps of the conceptual design, their results and their order, as well as software tool, which provides means for managing the design complexity and intuitive modeling of the principle solution. The advantages of the design methodology are demonstrated in a case study from the development of an autonomous miniature robot.

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