Model-based design is a powerful method for developing high-tech products and systems. Traditionally at Demcon, the mechatronic systems engineer took the lead in developing the model, but the software engineer turned out to be indispensable in defining a software architecture that resulted in efficient and maintainable control code generated by that model. Therefore, over the years, both disciplines have come together.
Broadly, the multidisciplinary interpretation of mechatronics at Demcon has software playing a crucial role across the entire spectrum, from embedded control to the graphical user interface. Software engineering isn’t limited to programming hardware and interface controls and signal processing algorithms but starts with the definition of the system architecture. In close collaboration with the mechatronic systems engineers, our software engineers also work with ‘languages’ such as Matlab/Simulink, for model-based system design and control, and Labview, for data acquisition and signal processing.
In the early years of model-based design at Demcon, it was mainly the mechatronic systems engineers who ‘programmed’ in Simulink. The advantages of this are that all the engineers involved in a project can ‘read the model’ and it allows for reusing architecture blocks. The mechatronic systems engineers used to focus on functionality, but they had no insight into state flows and interaction with the hardware. Nor did they have a good eye for the efficiency of software engineering in a broader sense, including testability and maintainability, as well as performance in the case of time-critical processes.
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