System engineering design approach and virtual assessment of a new charging arm concept for LHC robotic TIM

System engineering (SE) methods and principles are nowadays widely adopted in the product development processes, especially in the industrial sector, where saving production time and costs are primary goals. This work describes an application of a particular SE methodology, the V-model-based design, in which the system development lifecycle is divided on the basis of a graphical V-shaped scheme, called V-model. Following this approach, a new concept of charging arm for Robotic Train Inspection Monorail (TIM) of Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN (Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire) has been developed. The current charging arm version is affected by several issues and limits that have led to the necessity of a new solution. Starting from the first stages of functional requirements (FRs) definition and decomposition (left side of the “V”), a new concept has been implemented, in order to be tested for its verification and validation (right side of the “V”). As part of the principles of SE, the process has been based on virtual models of the product and on virtual simulations of its operation, rather than on the realization of time-consuming and expensive physical models and tests, even if a final physical prototype has also been built and some physical operative tests have also been carried out on it. These tests have showed that the new product appears to fulfill each one of its FRs and overcome the limits imposed by the previous version. The future commissioning and operative tests in the real operating condition and location shall definitely validate the new product.