Reference model for the description of digital engineering tools based on mechatronic principles and concepts

Today’s engineering demands the collaboration of various specialists in order to provide quality excellence and meet time constraints within engineering projects. Even though mechatronic engineering methodologies display handy instruments (e. g. VDI 2206), they are not sufficiently supported by digital engineering tools. Digital engineering tools are rather characterized based on discipline-specific functions and omit a holistic mechatronic thinking. On this account, the paper introduces a reference model for mechatronic engineering tools. Thereby, the model boundary bases on mechatronic principles and concepts (e. g. the mechatronic principle of interdisciplinary collaboration and the concept of interdisciplinary knowledge provision). The model is structured into three reference perspectives: Process, application and artifact. While the reference perspective process claims the requirements of mechatronic engineering processes, the reference perspective application represents the interaction with mechatronic developers and the reference perspective artifact forms the digital representation of mechatronic production systems. Being designed deductively, industry-based expert interviews and workshops ensure feasibility of the paper’s approach. Finally, the potential for integration in current software maturity models and the company-specific scaling of engineering tools is mentioned as part of the application’s scope.