SUPPORTING VALIDATION ACTIVITIES AND SELFREFLECTION PROCESSES IN INTERDISCIPLINARY DESIGN TEAMS

In order to fulfil customer demands with today’s complex mechatronic products, verification and validation activities are crucial elements within a product development process [1]. These activities comprise the preparation of prototypes, the selection of suitable environmental models, the testing procedure itself, and the acquisition and analysis of the test results. These tests can be classified and distinguished by various factors [2]: (1) use case affinity, (2) system levels, (3) validation purposes and (4) test compositions. The characteristics of all these factors have to match to the actual level of knowledge. To define the suitable test case for a specific validation objective needs a lot of experience [3] and may cause iterations or rework [4]. A new interdisciplinary mechatronic course is established this year at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Within this course, 40 undergraduate students attend lectures, exercises and perform an accompanying development project. In this development project, the students develop concepts, build prototypes and conduct validation and optimization activities. A web-based tool supports the students in planning and documenting of the test restrictions, the execution, interpretation and reflection. The tool bases on theoretical findings from analyzing different validation activities. It guides the students through a set of questions and answering options. These questions refer to a general description of the test setup (for documentation), to a specific classification of the test and to interpretation of the results. The specific classification gears towards the above-mentioned four distinguishing factors (1) to (4). The interpretation focuses possible biasing effects on the results (their reliability) and the consideration of existing uncertainties and resulting possible deviations