Control Engineering

 A higher degree of automation is required to be able to compete in markets were the pressure on costs is increasing.

By developing efficient control systems the required human effort can be lowered to a minimum as well as the throughput can be increased. Particularly in the high-tech industry the need for improved accuracy and throughput are required to serve the tomorrows technology. The number of inputs to the control system and the number of outputs to adjust the system are increasing rapidly, because of the requirements of today.

Segula Technologies as international group recognize these trends and offers their customers a structured way of working to be able to follow the needs. After the definition of the requirements of the system to control our engineers will model and simulate potential system solutions.

Simulations in the definition stage will support the system designers to make the correct control choices. In the requirement phase also the what-if scenarios will be described. One of the strengths of Segula is to deliver a complete system solution, which encounters the mechanical, hardware and software required to solve the control problem as a complete integrated solution. Control of servomotors, sensor electronics, actuator control, precision mechanics all belong to the complete system solution.

The system architect will break down the system functionality to be solved in mechanics, hardware and software. In this stage an ATAM session will be held to check if the chosen architecture is suited for the system to control as also maintainable, expandable, etcetera…

The system control model will be optimized and the design will be translated to a programmable hardware platform for rapid prototyping purposes in order to verify the real-life behaviour. As complex as control systems can be, also the number of possible solutions can be.

The challenge for our engineers is to develop an optimal solution taking the requirements into account, either the solution will be incorporated in a neural network, FPGA, DSP, µController or discrete solution.

Segula feels responsible for the complete development life cycle, which starts at the requirement phase and ends at the verification of the 0-series produced in the target factory. Along the development life cycle we will use the appropriate tools to deliver a high quality design, such as project management, requirement development, change management, requirement tracking, D-FMEA, DFA, DOE, DFM, TMAP.

Tools used:

Matlab Simulink®, Mathworks, FPGA/DSP builders, NX