There are some challenges while designing a cyber-physical system. To come to a successful and reliable design it is important to remove errors as early as possible, since eliminating errors at the end stage of the design can be very costly or time consuming. One approach to design a cyber-physical system regarding control software is the use of an iterative process. This iterative process first breaks down the control system into different control features, and each control feature is then developed with a loop in such a way that with every cycle more detail and complexity is added. The order of addition of the different details are important to make the process as efficient as possible in time effectiveness and in spotting errors.
To test this method on its effectiveness, the method is applied to a control design problem. The evaluation of the method will among others be based on the duration of the different iterations. Furthermore, it should be analyzed which benefits and drawbacks the method has on itself and with regard to possible other methods or not having a formal method at all. The conclusion of this evaluation can help to make a final conclusion about this method by evaluating multiple projects of this kind where this method is tested.
For the control design problem a slider setup is used. In this setup an electric motor moves two masses over a rail via a transmission belt. First a model of the setup will be made using the bondgraph approach. After this, additional aspects of a more complete model should be identified and ordered, such as non-linear behaviors, motor limitations, and sensor limitations. Based on the model the different control features will be developed according to the structured method.