Functional Verification Method Considering Ways of Use for Design of Products with Sensors

Abstract

Recent globalization in industries has increased the number of product failures and troubles caused by using them in unexpected ways. To avoid such troubles, it is necessary to verify whether the design plan can fulfill required functions when the product is utilized in various ways. From this point of view, the authors proposed a functional verification framework considering ways of use based on Petri net modeling and analysis of behavior of the product. However, it cannot be applied to products with sensors, since sensor faults could not be dealt with by the modeling method. This paper describes enhancement of the framework considering this problem. In the behavior modeling,some Petri net elements were introduced for representing difference between the information obtained by the sensors and the real information. This enabled the behavior model to represent sensor faults. In addition, another Petri net element that stands for a state in which the product should not be was also introduced. This made it possible to judge automatically whether an irregular phenomenon on the integrated model of behavior and physical phenomena results in a functional trouble. Application of the proposed method to an example of home cleaning robot proved its potential.