Object-Oriented Libraries of Physical Components in Simulation and Design

Our competitive global business environment promotes faster, better and cheaper product design. With the rapid advancing computational technology, virtual prototyping and simulation-based design have great potential to reduce design cost and improve design quality. To support simulation-based design of mechatronic systems, our group has developed a simulation and design environment in which design and modeling are tightly integrated. This integration is based on component objects that combine descriptions of both form and behavior of system components. By composing component objects into systems, the design team simultaneously specifies design alternatives and creates their models. To facilitate component reuse and organization, and to accommodate modeling of systems evolving throughout the design process, we have developed a hierarchical component library structure based on a function taxonomy. When moving from the top to the bottom of the hierarchy, the component objects become more specific. A single component may appear in multiple locations in the taxonomy, depending on the viewpoint for its classification. We have also developed a mechanism that allows a component object to gain access to the high-level behavior models of its ancestors and to be replaced by its descendants with more detailed behavior models. This allows the virtual prototype to evolve throughout the whole design process and to achieve the accuracy and efficiency required for the simulation experiments at each design stage.