Model integrated mechatronics: an architecture for the model driven development of manufacturing systems

The traditional approach for the development of manufacturing systems considers the constituent parts of the system i.e. mechanical, electronic and software, to be developed independently and then integrated to form the final system. This approach is inappropriate for the complexity and the dynamics of today\´s systems. In this paper, we present an architecture that promotes model integration not only in implementation space artifacts but also during the early analysis and design phases of the development process. This architecture is the heart of the proposed model integrated paradigm that we call model integrated mechatronics (MIM). The MIM architecture was utilized to define "Archimedes ", a system platform that supports the engineer through a methodology, a framework and a set of tools to automate the development process of agile mechatronic manufacturing systems.