Requirement analysis related to the mechatronic system smartness through the Systems Engineering

The ‘Systems Engineering’ is currently applied to face the complexity of products overall their life cycle. Some diagrams are used to preliminarily define the system behaviour, without resorting to numerical equations, which are used within the modelling tools usually applied by engineering sciences, only once that an assessment of architecture is performed. In case of mechatronic systems identifying the real contents of their ‘smartness’ is rather difficult. Specific standards are very seldom available. An effective design should identify the smallest number of active functions required to greatly improve the system efficiency and to simplify its architecture, with the lowest need of power. The ‘Systems Engineering’ enhances the detection of smartness requirements being related to the customer needs. As an example a review of requirements of a controlled rotor upon magnetic suspension used as a coiler to shape the steel rod at the end of the rolling mill stand is herein proposed. Critical issues for smartness are identified by means of behavioural diagrams of the ‘Systems Engineering’, thus allowing an increase of MTBF (mean time between failures), with a beneficial reduction of stops in service.