Mechatronics

Lino Marques
February 15th, 2022
 Outline
• What is mechatronics?
• Mechatronics key elements
• The mechatronics design process
• Examples of mechatronic systems
WHAT IS MECHATRONICS?
 What is mechatronics?
• The term mechatronics, as a combination of ‘mecha’ from
mechanisms and ‘tronics’ from electronics, was introduced in 1969
by Tetsuro Mori, from Yaskawa, to express the growing impact that
electronic components was having on the control and operation of
inherently mechanical systems.
• The word now has a wider meaning, being used to describe a
philosophy in engineering technology in which there is a
coordinated, and concurrently developed, integration of mechanical
engineering with electronics and intelligent computer control in the
design and manufacture of products and processes.
• This results in much greater flexibility, easy redesign and
reprogramming, and the ability to carry out automated data
collection and reporting.

[Adapted from Bolton, Ch. 1]

• “The subject of mechatronics concerns the synergistic
application of mechanics, electronics, controls, and
computer engineering in the development of
electromechanical products and systems through an
integrated design approach. Mechatronics is particularly
applicable in mixed-domain (or multidomain) systems,
which incorporate several physical domains, such as
electrical, mechanical, fluid, and thermal, in an integrated
manner.”
• “A typical mechatronic system consists of a mechanical
skeleton, actuators, sensors, controllers, signal
conditioning/modification devices, computer/digital
hardware and software, interface devices, and power
sources.”
[de Silva et al., Ch. 1]
• Mechatronics describes an interdisciplinary design methodology
which solves primarily mechanically oriented product functions
through the synergistic spatial and functional integration of
mechanical, electronic, and information processing subsystems.
[Society for Measurement and Automatic Control (VDI/VDE GMA)]

• Mechatronics is the synergistic combination of precision

mechanical engineering, electronic control and systems thinking in
the design of products and manufacturing processes. It covers the
integrated design of mechanical parts with an embedded control
system and information processing.
[International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC)]
 Mechatronics as a synergetic
integration of different disciplines

[Isermann, Ch.1]
 Evolution of automated systems
1. completely mechanical systems
(before and early 1900s),
2. automatic devices with electronic
components such as relays, transistors, op-
amps (early 1900s to 1970s),
3. computer controlled automatic systems
(1970s–present)
[Isermann, Ch.1]
Automatic control of water level
Engine speed control
Web handling motion control system
A furnace or room temperature
control system
Engine control using embedded
microcontrollers
Computer numeric controlled (CNC)
machine
MECHATRONICS KEY ELEMENTS
 Closed-loop control system

“Mechatronics is much more than control, but there is no Mechatronics without

control” (Janschek 2008)
Mechatronics Key Elements
 Mechatronics Key Elements
• Mechanical Systems
• Electrical Systems
• Sensors and Actuators
• Real-Time Interfacing
• Information and Control Systems
THE MECHATRONICS DESIGN
PROCESS
 Conventional approach to
electromechanical product design
• Design in sequence by specialized teams:
– 1. engineer(s) who design the mechanical
components of a product,
– 2. engineer(s) who design the electrical
components, such as actuators, sensors,
amplifiers and so on, as well as the control logic
and algorithms,
– 3. engineer(s) who design the computer hardware
and software implementation to control the
product in real-time.
Mechatronics: Concurrent engineering
• Better definition of the product without late
changes.
• Design for manufacturing and assembly
undertaken in the early design stage.
• Process on how the product development is
well defined.
• Better cost estimates.
• Decrease in the barriers between design and
manufacturing.
The Mechatronics Design Process
System Design: V-Model
Hardware-in-the-loop
Software-in-the-loop
EXAMPLES OF MECHATRONIC
SYSTEMS
Hard Disk Drives

[de Silva et al., Ch. 1]

Optical storage disk
Digital camera
Industrial robots
Mobile robot
Combustion engine
Construction machines
Commercial airplane (Boeing 777)
 References
• Shetty & Kolk (2011) Mechatronics System
Design, 2nd ed. Cengage Learning, (Chapter 1)
• Isermann (2005) Mechatronic Systems:
Fundamentals, Springer, (Chapter 1)
• Cetinkunk (2015) Mechatronics with
Experiments, 2nd ed. John Wiley & Sons
(Chapter 1)