Application of axiomatic design to rapid-prototyping support for real-time control software

Axiomatic design is applied to design of real-time control software. As a case study of software design for on-board computers of automobiles, the software of the current anti-lock braking system (ABS) is analyzed based on axiomatic design. It is shown that the current design is a coupled design and that it can be decoupled to improve the performance of the anti-lock braking system software. In developing real-time control systems, it is necessary to do rapid-prototyping. Existing software development methods are not useful as rapid-prototyping support tools. Axiomatic design is found to be the necessary powerful support tool by explicitly showing the inter-dependencies between program modules and by being able to model both the hardware and the software of a given design. Finally, a new development support system that uses the customer attribute (CA) database and addresses specific problems such as missing rationale is suggested based on axiomatic design. Thesis Supervisor: Nam P. Suh Title: The Cross Professor of Manufacturing and Head Department of Mechanical Engineering