Companion Autonomous Mechatronic System (CAMS)

This project consists in the design and development of a robot. More precisely, the purpose of this robot is to help its owner with a simple task - the carrying of objects. To complete this task in a comfortable way, the robot must be autonomous. That means, it must be able to follow its owner and react to its environment. This kind of robot is commonly called a CAMS (Companion Autonomous Mechatronic System). To work on this project, the Fraunhofer MSBE approach has been used and models (such as functional model, system model, behaviour model, CAD model) have been elaborated. The program used for this project was 3DEXPERIENCE.   As said in the introduction, the objectives of this project is the design of a CAMS. To fulfil this goal, the team must concentrate on two sub-objectives:

1. The team has to develop a reliable and efficient communication with the owner. This interaction must be in the 2 ways (robot -> owner + owner -> robot).
2. The team has to find solutions for the robot to help carrying load

The product has to be developed taking into account the people and companies that are going to use it. Here, the Target Group is Delivering Companies or those who want to go in this field (like Supermarkets) but also to Retirement Homes. Another important point for the development is the answer to the question “Where is the product going to be used?” The robot would have to be able to go outside on the street without bigger holes and steps higher than 5cm, different surfaces (like grass, cobblestones, concrete) and with an inclination smaller than 10°.    The team worked along the RFLP structure embedded in the typical V-Model for Model Based Systems Engineering.

• R --> Requirements
• F --> Functional Model
• L --> Logical Model
• P --> Physical Model

During the project 3DEXPERIENCE was our tool for creating autonomous vehicle with a verification afterwards. Starting with Enovia for creating a Gantt Chart and Requirements Specifications the team designed a complete solution neutral Functional & Logical Model. For a detailed simulation Modelica is used for creating the Behavior Model where all physical and electrical parameters come together. Combined with Arduino we could offer a real-time simulation with our designed prototype. The project offers an excellent overview how 3DEXPERIENCE sets values for Systems Engineering. Moreover, collaboration was one of the most important aspects which were realized with a comprehensive traceability structure between Requirements and their corresponding Functional or Logical elements, Functional or Logical elements with CAD or a direct dependence between the Functional and Logical Models. Finally, the team did different ways of verification with the help of 3DEXPERIENCE.

• Virtual Integrated Prototyping (Behavior Model + virtual Model (CAD), real time results)
• Hybrid Prototyping (HiL - Human in the Loop)
• Physical prototyping

The learning goals are:

• generating an interdisciplinary project structure
• using Enovia project management tools (creating Gantt Chart, Requirements List)
• Function & System Modeling and Simulation
• Using CATIA for CAD
• Building a Digital Twin
• Software implementation
• Software verification 
• building a prototype