To speed new products to market, medical device engineers may want to borrow a design tool from the automotive industry. Hardware-in-the-loop development approaches may reduce device lead times and costs up to 50% by developing and testing system components in parallel rather than sequentially.

Hardware-in-the-loop method using the example of a heart assist pump. Image credit: Fraunhofer IPA Automotive engineers create a computer model of a car that includes all details relevant for testing, including electronic control units, before the vehicle is even built. Researchers at Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA in Stuttgart, Germany, transferred this automotive design philosophy to the medical engineering sector.

Computer simulations are conducted for mechanical and electronic components simultaneously; fully automated tests allow for evaluation of more test situations than previously possible. Defects can be detected at an early design stage and revisions implemented before prototyping.

A construction kit assembled by Fraunhofer researchers has been used to develop and test a control technology for a biopsy system for the Dutch firm Soteria Medical.