The main focus of this paper is the exploration of fault accommodation possibilities in the context of function development. Faults occur in complex technical systems and may lead, if no accommodation entities or processes are present, to catastrophic failure. Several entities and processes exist and are applied, but mainly on the concrete levels. Faults very often concern more than one physical domain and accommodation possibilities are present in many physical or even non-physical domains. This paper explores this specific challenge and proposes an initial collection of countermeasures.

Since decades, researchers are developing methods, tools, and processes for the development of mechatronic systems. In the last decade, this field has widened, including, amongst others, aspects such as cyber-physical systems (CPS) or the internet of things (IoT). Still, little concrete guidance can be identified for engineers who have to decide whether to realize a certain product function mechanically, electronically, through software functions, or with combinations thereof. The goal of the paper is to contribute to the development of guidelines for design engineers in which domain (or in which combination of domains and other areas) to allocate the solution for an engineering problem.