"With the integration of multidomain systems, different disciplines that conveniently worked in separate bubbles in the past -- for example, electrical, mechanical, and software -- can no longer afford to do so," Karnofsky says. "To get a design out to market in a reasonable amount of time and to meet requirements requires much more collaboration."
Specifically, The MathWorks says that when collaboration happens far earlier in the design workflow, companies are much better positioned to garner efficiencies and wring costs out of their development processes.
"Once you adopt model-based design, what you get away from is building your first prototype that went together perfectly. Now, to get it to do what your customers expect it to do takes too many rebuilds to understand the design flaws," says Tony Lennon, The MathWorks' industry market manager for industrial automation. "The cost of rework has gotten to the point where companies need to find a way to get work done more cheaply."
Festo's Bionic Handling Assistant, a mechatronic industrial robot arm,
was inspired by the motion of an elephant's trunk.
Dr. Jerry Krasner, chief analyst with Embedded Market Forecasters, a division of American Technology International, conducted a study to drill down into the financial ROI associated with model-based design approaches. The study confirmed an uptick in model-based design adoption over the last six years. Krasner found that 36.6 percent of model-based design deployments in North America had a significant total cost of development advantage over other deployments. Moreover, the number of developers used per project was smaller with model-based design deployments, according to his research.
"Model-based design has significant cost advantages even for smaller designs," Krasner says, and the approach's advantages in rapid prototyping, code generation, and code reuse add to the value proposition. "The ability to move applications to new hardware and to have interoperability for people in different locations for working on the same project is key."
@Mydesign: You are right--the process is a major milestone, particularly in those industries where embedded systems lie at the heart of system designs. Beyond MATLAB and Simulink, any other tools that you are familiar with that are giving developers a jump on model-based design processes?
Beth, model based designing and prototyping are very important mile stones in any of the defence and avionic projects. Math lab and simulink are two major software's used for simulation purpose in engineering background. In most of the prototyping projects, spiral models are followed where blocks are building over the existing one in an incremental form.
Festo makes an excellent point here, and there are many, many other embedded developed who have the same dilemma: It's often difficult to optimize controller designs by building and testing on physical hardware. This article is going to be a keeper for many embedded developers.
Thanks Al. I could totally see how this design approach could have huge ramifications for easing the development burden around automation and controls machinery given the high content of software and the complex movements. From all accounts, it's a learning process, however, and a very different development approach than traditional engineering workflows. There is definitely a commitment required to get training for engineers, not just on the tools and software, but on the modeling work itself and how to best adapt it into design processes.
Beth, Excellent article. This approach has a ton of potential for transforming the way that automation/machinery is developed, designed and deployed. It will be interesting to see how this area develops with control vendors. There are some solutions in the marketplace now but this will require different planning and thinking in terms of the machinery development process to gain traction. Interesting.
The 3D printing revolution seems to have a knack for quickly moving technology ahead by way of collaborative effort and even a little friendly competition -- all of course in the name of scientific advancement.
Laura Sapiens' Ego! Smartmouse offers users a unique interactive experience by providing 2D and 3D connectivity, hardware identity authentication, data storage, and more.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
A quick look into the merger of two powerhouse 3D printing OEMs and the new leader in rapid prototyping solutions, Stratasys. The industrial revolution is now led by 3D printing and engineers are given the opportunity to fully maximize their design capabilities, reduce their time-to-market and functionally test prototypes cheaper, faster and easier. Bruce Bradshaw, Director of Marketing in North America, will explore the large product offering and variety of materials that will help CAD designers articulate their product design with actual, physical prototypes. This broadcast will dive deep into technical information including application specific stories from real world customers and their experiences with 3D printing. 3D Printing is
To save this item to your list of favorite Design News content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
If you found this interesting or useful, please use the links to the services below to share it with other readers. You will need a free account with each service to share an item via that service.
Tweet This
0 
