Fault-Tolerant and Resilient Design of Vehicle Systems on the Level of Abstract Physics

Current research is investigating strategies, methods, and tools aimed at making vehicles more fault-tolerant and resilient. However, one level of product concretization—the level of abstract physics—was not yet in the focus of the scientific discourse. As a consequence of an increasing complexity of technical systems, the approaches fault-tolerant design and resilient design become even more important and decisive product characteristics concern the level of abstract physics. The paper analyses opportunities and approaches on this level, which are intended to allow an accommodation of faults and/or to increase the resilience of vehicle systems. Four different areas of potential improvement were identified. A systematic procedure and a conscious integration in industrial vehicle development processes were investigated. The research results were developed in several current vehicle component development processes and are explained using this basis. The presented research intends to open a new field of investigation, consequently a main emphasis is directed to future research contents and directions.