Application of the “EasyKit” development method for control of mechatronical systems of small and medium complexity

It becomes more and more difficult, to develop and maintain complex mechatronical systems. For this purpose, new methods are needed for designing them in an economical way. EasyKit is a new method for hardware-software-co-design, which was developed for this purpose. The main aims were to reach a high flexibility when developing mechatronical systems for limited-lot production and the parallelization of the development of mechanical hardware, electronics and software. In this manuscript the development method of EasyKit will be presented, including the used hardware and software. This method will be compared to the recently used method for the design of mechatronical systems. During the EasyKit project different case studies were done, by controlling several mechatronical systems with EasyKit. One of these case studies, a pump testing system, will be presented. In this case study it will be shown, how a small mechatronical system can be put into operation and how it can be integrated in a larger system environment easily by using the EasyKit system.