Dependable Mechatronic Products: Closing the Intelligence Gap

Dependability is a decisive characteristic of any commercialized product. As a quality feature product dependability is a consequence of numerous activities within the underlying product development process. To assure a decent level of product dependability quality management systems provide a serious number of quality measures supporting many quality related activities. Still, no matter how many of these quality measures are applied, practice shows that especially complex products reveal drawbacks concerning the intended level of dependability. This paper in brief depicts an approach for improving the dependability of mechatronic products by applying fundamental remedies to the underlying product development process derived from specific defect type patterns. The approach thereby relies on an innovative defect classification and pattern recognition scheme for mechatronics.