Mechatronic system design includes a combination of different engineering disciplines. A common approach in design of mechatronic systems is based on a sequential method, where different disciplines are treated and designed separately. This paper extends earlier work on integrated physical and control design optimization with integrating an additional aspect of the corresponding embedded control system implementation. Our previous publications describe integrated design optimization through a few specific use cases but the impact of embedded control implementation on the structural design of the systems is neglected. In this paper, the approach is extended to cover discussions on control implementation and its effect on the physical dimensioning and vice versa. A multi-objective optimization approach is implemented and tested on a mechatronic system case study consisting of a DC-motor, a planetary gear, a flexible shaft, an embedded controller and a load. The couplings between the properties of different engineering domains are studied and highlighted. The presented approach which is aimed for early phases of design, considers the integration of three engineering disciplines in one design framework which so far has been missing.

The electric engine cooling system with the active grille shutter requires intelligent and predictive control to reach its full benefits on fuel economy and thermal management. Conventional control methods regulate the coolant temperature to a fixed value but do not directly minimize the vehicle's fuel/energy consumption. By contrast, we design a fuel minimization controller through solving constraint nonlinear optimization problems, whose cost function is the total fuel consumption and constraints are the vehicle's physical limits. To achieve high computational efficiency and sufficient accuracy, the optimization problem is solved by iterative convex quadratic programming and quasilinearization. The advantages of the proposed control method on both fuel economy and engine thermal management are demonstrated by simulations.

The fuel efficiency of the hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) highly relies on the engine efficiency. Thispaper proposes a particular powertrain configuration on a small hybrid electric racing car wherethe engine is only allowed to operate withpeak efficiency. An onlinebinarycontroller, accordingly, is developedbased on dynamic programming (DP)to control the engine on/off status and the torques from the electric motors (EMs) to ensure the HEV can successfully complete the drive mission with minimal fuel consumption.For comparison, the paper also develops anoptimal powertrain controller of the same HEV with the normal usage ofthe engine, i.e., the engine operates at any feasible point of the 2Dfuel efficiency map. The simulation results show that this binary controller can improveroughly13% on fuel efficiency compared with the general engine case.

This paper presents the application of zero velocity detectors in the field of indoor positioning for industrial tightening tools particularly in tandem with an extended Kalman filter to achieve reliable estimates in position. Inertial measurement units are promising devices to use in positioning systems. Data has been collected from IMU while moving in a predefined trajectory on a tightening test rig and post-processed in MATLAB using the implemented algorithms and the results are presented. They indicate that the error accumulation can be effectively controlled to 25 cm/min for the commercial grade IMU and 15 cm/min for the navigation grade IMU. 

To improve the fuel efficiency of a hybrid electric car with special powertrain features racing in Shell Eco-marathon, a computationally efficient online control system is developed by solving hierarchical optimal control problems. The top-level computes the optimal velocity trajectory based on the given competition track in advance. The lower-level then finds the best instantaneous engine state and torque allocation by the equivalent consumption minimization strategy (ECMS). The special design of the competition car reduces the ECMS into a binary optimization problem. The new controller can run in real-time on low-cost microprocessors and improves the car's fuel efficiency by 50% while maintaining the state of charge of the electrical energy buffer.

Purpose - This paper introduces a schema for the product assembly feature data in an object-oriented and module-based format using Unified Modeling Language (UML). To link production with product design, it is essential to determine at an early stage which entities of product design and development are involved and used at the automated assembly planning and operations. To this end, it is absolutely reasonable to assign meaningful attributes to the parts' design entities (assembly features) in a systematic and structured way. As such, this approach empowers processes such as motion planning and sequence planning in assembly design. Design/methodology/approach - The assembly feature data requirements are studied and definitions are analyzed and redefined. Using object-oriented techniques, the assembly feature data structure and relationships are modeled based on the identified requirements as five UML packages (Part, three-dimensional (3D) models, Mating, Joint and Handling). All geometric and non-geometric design data entities endorsed with assembly design perspective are extracted or assigned from 3D models and realized through the featured entity interface class. The featured entities are then associated (used) with the mating, handling and joints features. The AssemblyFeature interface is realized through mating, handling and joint packages related to the assembly and part classes. Each package contains all relevant classes which further classify the important attributes of the main class. Findings - This paper sets out to provide an explanatory approach using object-oriented techniques to model the schema of assembly features association and artifacts at the product design level, all of which are essential in several subsequent and parallel steps of the assembly planning process, as well as assembly feature entity assignments in design improvement cycle. Practical implications - The practical implication based on the identified advantages can be classified in three main features: module-based design, comprehensive classification, integration. These features help the automation and solution development processes based on the proposed models much easier and systematic. Originality/value - The proposed schema's comprehensiveness and reliability are verified through comparisons with other works and the advantages are discussed in detail.

This paper introduces the assembly feature data schema instance modeling to pre-examine the schema functionality and output- as the preliminary step for data modeling. In order to link assembly with product design, it is essential to determine which entities of product design are involved at the automated assembly planning and operations. It is possible to assign meaningful attributes (assembly features) to the part model entities in a systematic and structured way. Using object-oriented design, the assembly feature data structure and its relationships are modeled. As a part of the research on product and assembly system data integration within the evolvable production system platform, the instance models for proposed assembly feature data structure provide a deeper understanding and error reduction that might possibly occur at the development of the database. Moreover through instance modeling, the assembly feature data query output format from the database prototype is simulated. An industrial assembly model example with its 3DPart models is chosen to demonstrate the realized assembly feature data set with string data type. The models support the desired simplicity at the database prototype implementation. The output format envisions the interoperability factor between product models and the assembly planning systems.

Methodologies on design optimization of mechatronic systems are usually based on consecutive methods, i.e., the procedure of physical design, control and optimization of a system is performed step by step to achieve the final goal. This paper is built upon previous works on developing a toolbox to integrate several engineering backgrounds in early design phase to avoid time and cost consuming iterations in later deign steps. The previous methodology was mainly applicable for linear one-degree of freedom systems without time-variant dynamics. In this paper, the method is upgraded towards covering concepts on nonlinear systems where extra degrees of freedom are added to the system. Additionally, the library of the mentioned toolbox is extended to include ball-screw drive and rotational rigid beam components in terms of physical design, dynamic and static models to examine the feasibility of the design. A conceptual nonlinear multi-degree design case is presented and linearized at specified operational points in the supported software framework and the implemented models are verified in both SimMechanics and Simulink.

This paper describes a novel approach to recognize product features, which are significant for Assembly Process Planning (APP). The work presented in this paper is a part of a larger effort to develop methods and tools for a more automated and bidirectional link between product CAD and the different processes and resources applied in APP. APP is the phase, in which the required assembly processes and resources are determined in order to convert a product to fully assembled or semi-assembled product. Product features will be extracted from the SolidWorks (SW) CAD file using SW- Application Programming Interface (API). SW-API is an interface that allows the exchange of data between CAD design and different software applications. The work includes automatic recognition for assembly knowledge, geometry and non-geometry knowledge (dimensions, geometrical tolerances, and kinematic constraints) in assembly design, which are relevant for assembly process and resources. Recognition algorithms have been developed by using visual basic. Net (VB.net). A case-study example is included for illustration of the proposed approach.