Mechatronics

2016-06-08

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Enabling Mechatronics Product
Development with Digital Prototyping
By Keith Perrin
AUTODESK®
WHITE PAPER
Summary
Today’s manufacturers are using a mechatronics-based approach to integrate the electronic, mechanical,
and software components of their increasingly complex products. Digital Prototyping allows disparate en-
gineering teams to work from a single digital model, saving time and reducing errors throughout the design
process. The Autodesk solution for Digital Prototyping enables manufacturers to achieve the full benefits of
mechatronics product development.
Overview
The Need for a New Approach
Today’s manufacturers face unrelenting pressure to continuously develop innovative new products.
According to a recent survey of CEOs, two-thirds of executives believe that innovation is vital to the future
of their companies.1 Their concern is understandable; according to one estimate, the products that generate
nearly 70 percent of revenues today will be obsolete by 2010.2
In response to this call for innovation, manufacturers have accelerated their adoption of electronics.
Research shows that 92 percent of manufacturers now incorporate electronic elements into their products.3
The automotive industry provides a prime example. While the proportion of a car’s cost that can be attrib-
uted to electronic systems has increased by an average of 8.3% per year over the past eight years, the pro-
portion attributed to mechanical systems has decreased by an average of 3.2%.4 These trends are broadly
consistent across all industries.
1 Accenture, “Good Ideas Are Not Enough: Adding Execution Muscle to Innovation Engines,” 2005.
2 Deloitte, “Mastering Innovation: Exploiting Ideas for Profitable Growth,” 2005.
3 Aberdeen Group, “The Mechatronics System Design Benchmark Report,” August 2006.
4 Accenture, “Tuning into Tomorrow’s Frequencies: How Product Development in Automotive Electronics Drives High
Performance,” 2006.
Contents
Summary ...................................................1
Overview ..................................................1
The Challenges of Adopting a
Mechatronics Approach .......................2
Key Elements of a Mechatronics
Solution .................................................... 3
Driving Mechatronics Product
Development with Digital
Prototyping .............................................4
The Autodesk Approach to Digital
Prototyping ............................................. 5
Request More Information ..................6
Image courtesy of ASKA
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As manufacturers respond to the demands of the market, they must deal with the added complexities of
synchronizing mechanical, electronic, and software elements into one integrated system. In the process,
they must eectively coordinate disparate engineering teams. A mechatronics-based approach can help.
Eective mechatronics product development demands a focus on three key engineering activities:
• Multi-Disciplinary Design and Engineering. Mechatronics refers to the integration of control systems,
electrical systems, and mechanical systems. A mechatronics system is not just a marriage of electrical and
mechanical systems, and is more than just a control system. It is a complete integration of all of them.5
Top-performing manufacturers are 3.2 times more likely to allocate design requirements to systems.6
• Managing Communication and Workflow. Integration of systems should be coupled with improvements
in the coordination between the discipline-specific teams that are responsible for creating individual sub-
systems. The often complex inter-relationships between individual sub-systems demand eective commu-
nication and clear ownership.7 Top-performing manufacturers are 2.8 times more likely to communicate
change among their engineering disciplines.8
• Eective Early Validation. If manufacturers are going to develop cheaper, more reliable, and more flex-
ible systems, they must validate across the traditional boundaries of mechanical engineering, electrical
engineering, electronics, and control engineering at the earliest stages of the design process.9 Top-
performing manufacturers are 7.3 times more likely to digitally validate system behavior.10
The Mechatronics Advantage
Manufacturers that harness the best practices of mechatronics can achieve significant benefits. Best-in-
class manufacturers are more able to reach their targets for development costs, product revenue, and
product quality, and to hit their product launch dates. Such manufacturers can also:
• Addmorefeaturesandfunctions.
• Reducethesize,weight,andcostoftheirproducts.
• Improvetheiroveralleciency.
• Leverageadaptivecontrolanddiagnosticstoimprovereliabilityandreducemaintenancecosts.
• Customizeorupgradeproductsbyreprogrammingembeddedrmware.
In addition, a mechatronics-based approach mitigates risk and solves common design challenges such as the
slow, serial machine design process; poor communication between machine designers and customers; and
risky physical machine testing.11
The Challenges of Adopting a Mechatronics Approach
As manufacturers focus on improving their mechatronics product development processes, they often face
significant challenges:
Challenge Response
Dicultyndingandhiringexperiencedsystemengineers/lackofcross-func-
tional knowledge
50%
Early identification of system level problems 45%
Ensuring all design requirements are met in the final system 40%
Dicultypredicting/modelingsystemproductbehavioruntilphysicalproto-
types exist
32%
Dicultyimplementinganintegratedproductdevelopmentsolutionforall
disciplines involved in mechatronics product development
28%
Inability to understand the impact a design change will have across disciplines12 18%
Source: Aberdeen Group
5 Bolton, William, “Mechatronics: Electronic Control Systems in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering,” Third Edition. Saddle
River, New Jersey, Prentice Hall, 2004.
6 Aberdeen Group, “System Design: New Product Development for Mechatronics,” January 2008.
7 Bolton.
8 Aberdeen Group, “System Design: New Product Development for Mechatronics,” January 2008.
9 Bolton.
10 Aberdeen Group, “System Design: New Product Development for Mechatronics,” January 2008.
11 Mathur,Nipun,“Mechatronicsformachinebuilders–designchallengesandsolutions,”August21,2007.http://www.myfen.
com.au/articles/Mechatronics-for-machine-builders-design-challenges-and-solutions_z71096.htm
12 Aberdeen Group, “System Design: New Product Development for Mechatronics,” January 2008.
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Finding design conflicts across disciplines depends largely on the knowledge base of the sta—and yet
manufacturers list a lack of cross-functional knowledge as their leading challenge. Although hiring issues
are partly to blame, manufacturers seldom have design tools that can integrate design data from all the
elements that make up a product. As a result, their teams fail to understand the impact of design change
across disciplines.
If manufacturers are going to achieve all the benefits of mechatronics product design, they clearly need
technology solutions that enable their design disciplines to collaborate and communicate seamlessly, while
also helping them identify system-level problems early, verify that all design requirements are met, and
predict the behavior of the final product.
Key Elements of a Mechatronics Solution
Ideally, a mechatronics solution should support the following best practices:
1. Multi-disciplinary design and engineering
2. Managing communication and workflow
3. Eective early validation
Multi-Disciplinary Design and Engineering
As the saying goes, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll end up somewhere else.” In product
development, knowing what you need is the first step to getting the final product right. Outlining product-
level requirements is usually the first step in outlining product performance. The ability to drive these key
parameters into system and sub-system operational performance goals is often what sets leading manufac-
turers apart from their peers.
Many manufacturers assume that building a single, integrated design process across all disciplines is the
best way to coordinate multi-disciplinary design and engineering so that all product requirements are met.
But statistics show that the extra eort spent on process engineering ultimately goes to waste. Instead,
best-in-class manufacturers use separate design processes across disciplines in order to leverage the do-
main expertise of their designers. However, this requires that they be diligent in coordinating and synchro-
nizing their engineering groups. It is this synchronization that is key.
This approach is a best practice that should be adopted by other manufacturers seeking to improve their
mechatronics design processes. From a practical perspective, this will require manufacturers to deploy fo-
cused engineering tools that allow individual disciplines to excel at their work, while providing the ability to
share information easily. But it is not enough to be able to model these systems. System-level performance
is usually a function of the disparate engineering and design needs of various sub-systems. Breaking down a
system into its core constituents, therefore, demands some formality. As a result, it is essential to establish
clear processes for eectively communicating changes, and to align collaboration and system engineering
tools that can help make sure teams communicate changes eectively.
Managing Communication and Workflow
As manufacturers seek to coordinate and synchronize their separate engineering groups, there are many
ways to bring information together. The average company often prefers to generate the bill of materials
(BOM) from a customer database application. However, this method requires not only dedicated mainte-
nance and support, but also manual synchronization of design information—making it complex and error-
prone for a structure that contains thousands of parts.
Best-in-class manufacturers take advantage of discipline-specific structures for designing products. Rather
than maintaining one large database across all groups, companies can use individual, discipline-specific
databases that allow groups to manage their workgroup-level data and workflow at a local level.
But even the discipline-specific approach can create problems if manufacturers do not manage it correctly.
Ultimately, manufacturers must strike a balance between providing the focus that engineering disciplines
require and making certain that the data they create can be brought together easily.
Digital Prototyping Success Story
Bosch Rexroth Canada
“Autodesk Inventor allowed Rexroth to
move directly from the design stage to
production, without the need for expensive
prototypes.”
—JimLambert,C.E.T.,designengineering
manager, Hydraulic Business Unit, Bosch
Rexroth Canada
Benefits
With the Autodesk solution for Digital
Prototyping, Bosch Rexroth Canada:
• Transitionedfrom2Dto3Ddesign
• Landedave-yearprojecttomodernize
locksontheSt.LawrenceSeaway
• Reducedaveragemonthlynon-confor-
mances by 46 percent
• Cutdrawingerrorsby25percent
• Increaseddrawingaccuracyby7percent
• Decreaseddesigntimesbyover50percent
• Madechanges50percentfasterthanin2D
• Cutmaterialandlaborcostsby15to20
percent
• Producedtwiceasmanydrawingswiththe
same sta
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Eective Early Validation
No one disputes that it is a good idea to resolve integration issues before committing money to tooling
andmanufacturingramp-up.Leadingmanufacturersfocusonresolvingintegrationissuesearlyinproduct
development, and maintain this focus right up until verification and testing.
By focusing on validation, simulation, and verification earlier in the development process, manufacturers
can avoid the costs and delays associated with resolving integrations later on. But to achieve these benefits,
manufacturers must bring together a wide variety of design and engineering information for review. The
goal is to synchronize the eorts of larger teams into single design reviews where all pertinent information
is available at once. This is just one of the benefits of digital prototyping.
Driving Mechatronics Product Development with Digital Prototyping
Rather than trying to integrate information from disconnected engineering systems, manufacturers can
save time and money by enabling all their teams to work from the same digital model. Today, many best-
in-class manufacturers are augmenting traditional physical prototyping by building digital prototypes. By
tracking and comparing physical and digital prototype test results, these companies are gaining a deeper
understanding of their products and the environments in which they operate—leading to greater overall
product quality.
How Digital Prototyping Enables Best-in-Class Manufacturing
According to recent research, best-in-class manufacturers that use digital prototyping outpace average
manufacturers by:
• Building50percentfewerphysicalprototypes.
• Gettingproductstomarket58daysfaster.
• Reducingprototypingcostsby48percent.
• Freeinguptimeandresourcesforgreaterinnovation.13
An Action Plan for Mechatronics Excellence
Although manufacturers have been talking about the benefits of digital prototyping for many years, the
ability to build and test a true digital prototype has, until recently, been beyond the budgets of most manu-
facturing companies. In recent years, however, vendors have introduced increasingly practical solutions that
are more attainable, scalable, and cost-eective than their predecessors.
Aberdeen Group has identified four key capabilities needed for best-in-class mechatronics product develop-
ment:
• Implementprocessestoovercomethelackofcross-functionalknowledgeandpromotebettercommu-
nication.
• Usesimulationtoidentifysystem-levelproblemsearlyinthedesignprocess.
• Managedesignrequirementsthroughouttheentiredesignlifecycle.
• Acceleratethedesignofsystemcontrolswithautomatedsoftwaretoolsandsimulations.14
For all of these reasons, manufacturers should look for an integrated engineering suite that enables a digital
prototyping workflow.
13 Aberdeen Group, “The Transition from 2D Drafting to 3D Modeling Benchmark Report,” September 2006.
14 Aberdeen Group, “System Design: New Product Development for Mechatronics,” January 2008.
Digital Prototyping Success Story
HTC Sweden
“Our choice of Autodesk solutions is
largely a result of our vision of a complete,
digital world within the company’s walls.”
— Karl Thysell, Head of Product
Development, HTC Sweden
Benefits
With the Autodesk solution for Digital
Prototyping, HTC has:
• Achievedupto200%annualgrowth,
growing from a $7.5 million to $56 million-
company in six years
• Slashedthenumberofphysicalproto-
types from five to one
• IntegratedProductstreamwithenter-
prise resource planning (ERP) system to
connect suppli ers in a streamlined, online
supply chain
Images courtesy of HTC, Sweden
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AUTODESK® WHITE PAPER
The Autodesk Solution for Digital Prototyping
The Autodesk solution for Digital Prototyping helps mainstream manufacturers realize the full benefits of
mechatronics by allowing them to quickly create and easily maintain a single, digital model. This model con-
nects mechanical and electrical teams by bringing together design data from all phases of development for
use across all disciplines. Because the digital model simulates the complete product, engineers can better
visualize, optimize, and manage their design before producing a physical prototype.
As engineering teams work on the digital prototype, Autodesk’s data management tools integrate electrical
and mechanical components into a single bill of materials (BOM). Using tightly integrated mechanical and
electrical information, teams create more accurate 2D and 3D mechatronics designs in less time, enabling
manufacturers to get to market faster.
The Autodesk solution for Digital Prototyping directly addresses the major obstacles to successful mecha-
tronics design by facilitating multi-disciplinary design and engineering, managing project communications
and workflows, and validating designs early in the process.
Facilitating Multi-Disciplinary Design and Engineering
Autodesk is unique in its ability to provide focused design solutions for both electrical and mechanical
engineering workgroups. The Autodesk solution for Digital Prototyping includes leading tools such as
AutoCAD® Electrical and AutoCAD® Mechanical, which work in parallel with Autodesk® Inventor® software
to support integrated 2D and 3D mechanical and electrical design processes.
Autodesk Inventor software is the foundation for Digital Prototyping, providing a comprehensive, inte-
grated set of design tools for producing and documenting complete digital prototypes that allow designers
to simulate how a design will work under real-world conditions before a product is ever built. AutoCAD®
Electrical is AutoCAD® software for controls designers, purpose-built to create and modify electrical con-
trol systems quickly and accurately with significant cost savings.
More than any other solution on the market, the Autodesk solution for Digital Prototyping gives the
smoothest bi-directional interoperability between 2D and 3D mechanical and electrical design applications.
AutoCAD Electrical software passes electrical design intent information for cables and conductors directly
to Autodesk Inventor software to automatically create a 3D harness design. Autodesk Inventor users can
pass wire-connectivity information to AutoCAD Electrical and automatically create the corresponding 2D
schematics. The smooth integration between AutoCAD Electrical and Autodesk Inventor software helps
users create accurate mechatronics designs in less time.
Managing Communications and Workflows
As mechatronics product designs evolve and become more complicated, the Autodesk® Productstream®
family of product data management (PDM) applications protect designers and engineers from unintentional
overwriting of good designs. In addition, users can save hours of valuable design time with powerful tools to
rapidly copy and reuse design data, reducing the time required to start a new design.
Autodesk Data Management tools allow design workgroups to manage and track all the design components
for a digital prototype, helping them to better reuse design data, manage bills of material, and promote
early collaboration with manufacturing teams and clients. As mechanical and electrical teams work in paral-
lel, Autodesk Productstream data management applications securely store and manage the engineering
design data and related documents that make up the complete digital prototype.
In addition, Autodesk Productstream can automate change and release processes. Manual processes for re-
lease and change can lead to design project delays and shop-floor errors. Autodesk’s PDM applications give
design teams the choice of standard or configurable processes for release and engineering change order
management, helping them avoid costly mistakes and remove process bottlenecks.
Digital Prototyping Success Story
Industrial Microwave
“Productstream allows us to easily man-
age product revisions and simply compile
bills of materials, bridging the two CAD
tools we use here at Industrial Microwave
Systems—Inventor and AutoCAD
Electrical.”
— Michael Trull, design engineer, Industrial
MicrowaveSystems,LLC
Benefits
With the Autodesk solution for Digital
Prototyping, Industrial Microwave:
• Developedacompletemechatronics
strategy
• IntegratedAutoCAD® Electrical designs
with 3D Inventor® models
• UsedAutodesk® Productstream to share
complete design data with the shop floor
• Simpliedreleasemanagement
• Bridgedcommunicationgapsbetween
disciplines
Autodesk,AutoCAD,Inventor,andProductstreamareregisteredtrademarksortrademarksofAutodesk,Incand/orits
subsidiariesand/oraliatesintheUSAand/orothercountries.Allotherbrandnames,productnames,ortrademarksbelongto
their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product oerings and specifications at any time without notice, and
is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document.
© 2008 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Validating Designs Early and Often
Autodesk delivers the best integrated simulation tools in the industry. Tightly integrated calculations, stress
analysis, and motion simulation make it possible for any engineer to optimize and validate a digital proto-
type before the product is built.
The dynamic simulation tools in Autodesk Inventor enable engineers to evaluate dierent potential solu-
tions to a motion problem, enabling the best design decisions and preventing costly mistakes. This is a key
element to developing mechatronics products because dynamic analyses are based on real-world con-
straints with the ability to build in all factors that influence motion in a mechanical assembly.
By taking a unique functional design approach, the Autodesk solution for Digital Prototyping focuses on
product function, not geometry creation. As a result, engineers can quickly and easily build digital proto-
types. Rather than defining designs with a list of parametric modeling features, they can begin by captur-
ing its functional requirements, allowing the software to automatically create geometry. Mechatronics
engineers can use the time they would have spent creating geometry to improve product performance and
release designs early.
Request More Information
The Autodesk solution for Digital Prototyping can give manufacturers a mechatronics advantage. By using
a Digital Prototyping solution to enable mechatronics development, teams can spend less time worrying
about whether electrical and mechanical components will work together and more time innovating. To learn
more about what makes Autodesk a leader in mechatronics, visit www.autodesk.com today.
Image courtesy of HTC, Sweden

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