Variational approach for mechatronic tolerancing: application to a DC motor

Having an increasingly complex set of inter-relations between several components from different domains, mechatronic systems become more and more complex. The behavior of such systems depends on the values of their parameters and variables. A deviation of these values from their expected values affects the overall functioning of the system, degrades the system quality, and may be a significant threat to safety. To reach an expected quality level, the deviations between actual and target values of parameters should be within specified tolerances. For this, two extreme limits (i.e. upper and lower bounds) of these values must be wisely determined. It is also important to know the impact of parameters deviations on system behavior. Furthermore, the margin of variables should be controlled to evaluate system performance with respect to the specifications, requirements and user needs. This paper describes a methodology based on a variational approach combined with Worst-Case Analysis and Monte Carlo Simulation to determine the impact of the parameters variation on the system behavior. It helps designers to analyze tolerances of mechatronic systems. Our proposed methodology is illustrated with a DC motor case study. The results show that the developed method provides a new way for mechatronic tolerancing.