A system architecting tool for mechatronic systems design

System architecting in mechatronic systems design is a crucial task to define physical and logical configurations of subsystems and components that realize desired functions and behaviors. Particularly, it is crucial to consider sensor–actuator configurations that control the quality of desired functions. The paper proposes a computer-based tool based on extended Function-Behavior-State (FBS) modeling method that incorporates visualization of geometric information and introduction of an interval-temporal logic. These extensions allow system architects to communicate with experts in different domains and domain experts to conduct domain specific design tasks without having quantitative design information about physical configuration.