An ontology DSL for the co-design of mechatronic systems

The complexity of mechatronic systems is vastly increasing. Therefore, the design of these systems requires different engineering domains, e.g., the mechanical, electrical, and control domains, to work together. The different domains often work in parallel to gain efficiency in this so-called co-design process. However, the design choices made by engineers in one domain can influence parameters in another domain. Too little or even no knowledge about these cross-domain influences may later lead to system integration problems or to degraded system performance. Solving these problems requires taking steps back in the development process, causing a higher design cost. In order to improve this cross-domain collaboration, we propose using ontologies to assist the co-design process by explicitly capturing the design dependencies, both within and across the engineering domains. However, designing ontologies can be complex and is labor-intensive, especially if one relies on generic ontology languages like the Web Ontology Language 2 (OWL 2). Therefore, we created a Domain Specific Language (DSL) focusing on the essential complexity, which enables engineers to design a cross-domain system ontology in a consistent and straightforward way. We elaborate on the metamodel for this DSL, discuss the realization of a prototype tool, and demonstrate how one can then reason on this ontology to derive new information about the various cross-domain design relationships.