SYSTEMS ENGINEERING AND ITS APPLICATION TO AN UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE

Abstract

Current engineering achievements have an increasing level of size and complexity. The size, difficulty and multi-disciplinary approach of these achievements makes more interesting the use of holistic approaches as systems engineering, which have been applied by different industries, such as aerospace, and more recently to automotive, but they are still unknown for other product engineering areas. This paper proposes an agile odel-based methodology for systems engineering, combining it with other engineering practices useful for the design of mechatronic systems. It is illustrated with its application to a real UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle). This methodology deals with the requirements specification, functional analysis and high-level design. This approach can be used for other product, equipment and devices engineering performed by an engineer involved in their development.