Functional Design Tree for Mechatronic Projects in Mechanical Engineering Design Course

The functional approach utilizes a ‘Functional Design Tree’, which is a decomposition hierarchy of functions involving sub-functions of an engineering system at various levels of resolution. Use of functional approach in the design of mechatronic systems is investigated in the senior level mechanical engineering design projects. A survey is conducted on the senior mechanical engineering students after an engineering design course. It is attempted to find out whether the students followed the systematic design approach, and to what extent they used the functional design tree. The results of the survey are presented and evaluated in the paper, and some conclusions are derived for possible outcomes of the survey.