A COMPARISON OF EVOLUTIONARY AND REVOLUTIONARY APPROACHES IN MECHATRONIC DESIGN
Year: 2011
Editor: Culley, S.J.; Hicks, B.J.; McAloone, T.C.; Howard, T.J. & Clarkson, P.J.
Author: Stetter, Ralf; Möhringer, Stefan; Pulm, Udo
Series: ICED
Section: Design Processes
Page(s): 221-232
Abstract
Since ICED 2007 the special interest group (SIG) “mechatronics” is discussing research of mechatronic design. At the Design 2010 the findings were summarized to a research framework in order to support and give structure to further activities. During the numerous discussions the insight appeared that one of the most important characteristics is the starting point and the general procedure style of the strategies, methods and tools for mechatronic design, for instance the necessary amount of chaos. From an extreme point of view, one could identify two antagonistic concepts. A purely revolutionary approach will start from nothing but necessities of users or society and will follow a rigid procedure in order to design something totally new. On the contrary, a purely evolutionary approach will start with an existing product and will proceed in numerous cycles in order to design something better. Obviously, no black-and-white distinction of the existing approaches is possible or sensible. The ultimate goal of the ongoing research is the formulation of guidelines how a combination of both general directions could lead to more effective and robust mechatronic design processes.
Keywords: MECHATRONIC DESIGN; DESIGN STRATEGIES