Flexible und plattformunabhängige Entwicklung mikrocontrollerbasierter mechatronischer Systeme für Nutzer ohne Vorwissen

Der steigende Bedarf an mikrocontrollerbasierten mechatronischen Systemen ist heute nicht mehr zu übersehen. Zur Deckung des Bedarfs werden gewöhnlich modellbasierte Methoden eingesetzt, welche die Arbeit der Experten beschleunigen. Diese Methoden sind aber selbst für technikbegeisterte Laien oft nicht einsetzbar, da sie ein fundiertes Vorwissen voraussetzen. An dieser Stelle setzt die vorliegende Arbeit an. Sie stellt verschiedene Konzepte vor, mit welchen es möglich ist, die elektronische Hardware und die Software für mikrocontrollerbasierte mechatronische Systeme zu entwickeln, ohne dass hierfür Vorwissen auf den Gebieten der Elektronikentwicklung oder der Informatik benötigt wird. Eine solche Vereinfachung geschah bisher gewöhnlich nur durch die Kapselung hardwarenaher Funktionen in abstrakten Modulen. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird jedoch ein anderer Weg gewählt. Die Nutzer sollen während der Nutzung ein Grundverständnis für die Funktionsweise mechatronischer Systeme erlangen.In this thesis new concepts for designing development systems for mechatronic systems are introduced. The concepts allow flexible and simple usage, even if the users don’t have prior expert knowledge. For this purpose, approaches are presented, which allow a transparent illustration of the mode of operation of sensors, actuators and used platforms, allowing users to understand related technical topics.In the first part of the thesis, basic knowledge and the state of the art are presented. After this, the concepts of the microsystems development systems “EasyKit” and “EasyKit macht Schule” are described. In these systems microcontrollers are used as platform, because they already contain a high functional integration. Because of this, novice users prefer to use them as platform of choice. The electronic circuits, including the microcontroller, are provided in shape modular hardware blocks. They are programmed graphically with modular software blocks. The approach of programming introduced, uses a combination of the advantages of sequential function charts and synchronous data flow charts which increases the flexibility. Tests showed that even users without prior technical knowledge were able to program the microcontroller with these languages.The EasyKit concept was advanced, to offer increased flexibility and simplicity during programming. Besides, there was the goal to give users without expert knowledge the capability of developing electronics on the circuitry level, which is far more flexible than developing on the modular level. For this purpose, requirements are analyzed and new approaches are presented in the thesis. The most important approach, to make the soft-ware development more flexible, is the introduction of a new additional programming level, which supports graphical and textual programming methods at the same time. For assisting the user during the hardware development on the circuitry level, approaches are presented, which allow modeling most sensors and actuators, by abstracting them to their types of interfaces. Through this, the user can be supported when developing driver circuits to be used between the sensors, actuators and the microcontroller. Besides, this approach allows a comprehensible visualization of the signal behavior and the signal transformation at the interface of the microcontroller. Further approaches to increase the usability during the development phase are also presented in the thesis.The most promising approaches were implemented to a development environment and tested with members of the target audience

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