In this paper, a new mechatronics index is proposed for the evaluation of the alternatives in the conceptual design phase. The criteria aggregated to the index are acquired mostly by the collective knowledge presented in the Multi Annual Roadmap for robotics in Europe and adapted by considering the recent advancements in mechatronics. The mathematical formulation of this design index is based on the discrete Choquet integral, taking into account the interactions among the criteria. An application of the proposed mechatronics index to the design of an educational firefighting robot is presented as a case study to demonstrate the support to the designers in the conceptual design evaluation process.

Introduction

The current mechatronics systems acquire very advanced capabilities/ characteristics based on the evolution of the mechatronics enabling technologies and the mechatronics design methodology. In [1], the enhanced intelligence/autonomy of the mechatronic systems as well as the increased complexity are identified, however these changes drive to completely new characteristics and capabilities of mechatronic systems supporting the new generation of production systems, e.g. these devices evolved from the simple monitoring to self-optimising their performance. On top of that, mechatronics enhanced the application domains from manufacturing, automotive, precision agriculture, food processing to biomechatronics and micromechatronics. The development of mechatronics products and systems requires concurrent, multi-disciplinary and integrated design approaches. A lot of research effort have been conducted to improve and support the design process towards advanced mechatronics products and systems as it was presented in some of the most relevant publications [2–۴]. However, this paper deals mainly with the abilities of the mechatronics systems and with the formulation of the mechatronic indices so the presentation of the state-of-the-art is focused to those aspects of the mechatronics design [5–۱۱]. The mechatronic design quotient (MDQ) [5–۷,۹] was proposed as a multicriteria measure for assisting mechatronics design. In this measure, seven criteria were integrated: Meeting task requirements, reliability, Intelligence, matching, Control Friendliness, Efficiency and Cost. Guidelines for the design evaluation using those criteria in the conceptual design phase were presented [5,7]. These criteria were aggregated using the discrete Choquet integral – a nonlinear fuzzy integral that can be used for assisting decision-making with interacting criteria [12]. The Mechatronic Multicriteria profile (MMP) [10,11] with five keycriteria (machine intelligence quotient, reliability, complexity, flexibility and cost of manufacture and production) was proposed for the mechatronic concepts evaluation. Non-linear fuzzy integrals were used for the aggregation of the criteria and the method was applied to the design of a visual servoing system for a 6-DOF robotic manipulator. A mechatronic index that includes three criteria namely, intelligence, flexibility and complexity was introduced in [8].