Conquering Mechanical Engineering Problems in Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS)

Abstract

Mechanical engineers are faced with many challenges today in their efforts to optimizing the functionally and efficacy of production systems. Today’s production systems are very complex constituting of a myriad of internodes and interconnected components that are mutualistically depend on each other for effective interaction, communication, and productions. With the invention of information and digital technologies, mechanical engineers have been implored to boost the efficiency of the physical production systems through integration with the cyber system. The interrelation and interconnectedness of the cyber and physical systems created a cyber-physical system (CPS) in which many engineers depend on in their daily activities. Mechanical engineers are keynote developers of the CPS, however, a key challenge in CPS development is the information gap between the different disciples involved in the development programs especially mechanical and software engineering. There are no clear nor definite boundaries between physical and cyber worlds making it more complex for engineers, therefore, this paper evaluated how mechanical engineers can leverage their ability in conquering engineering problems when developing cyber-physical systems for improved physical production. Cyber-physical system as a system that permits integration of computational attributes that interact and control physical entities can be considered as embedded systems and mechatronics. The mechatronic system in which mechanical engineers focus on allows the linking of physical and computational elements enabling the control of computer science and engineering domains. Effective collaborative and cooperation between necessary disciplines more so for engineering processes dependent on the cyber-physical systems, hence need to use them to alleviate problems in mechanical engineering designs.