Chapter One

Introduction to
Mechatronics
By: Bruck Alemu
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What is “Mechatronics” ?
• Mechatronics is a concept of Japanese origin (1970’s) and
can be defined as the application of electronics and computer
technology to control the motions of mechanical systems.

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What is “Mechatronics” ?

• It is a multi-disciplinary approach to
product and manufacturing system
design.
• It involves application of electrical,
mechanical, control and computer
engineering to develop products,
processes and systems with greater
flexibility, ease in redesign and ability
of reprogramming.
• It concurrently includes all these
disciplines.

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 Mechatronics Definition
 “Integration of electronics, control engineering, and mechanical engineering.”
 W. Bolton, Mechatronics: Electronic Control Systems in Mechanical Engineering,
Longman, 1995.

 “Application of complex decision making to the operation of physical systems.”

 D. M. Auslander and C. J. Kempf, Mechatronics: Mechanical System Interfacing,
Prentice-Hall, 1996.

 “Synergistic integration of mechanical engineering with electronics and

intelligent computer control in the design and manufacturing of industrial
products and processes.”
 F. Harshama, M. Tomizuka, and T. Fukuda, “Mechatronics-what is it, why, and how?-
and editorial,” IEEE/ASME Trans. on Mechatronics, 1(1), 1-4, 1996.

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Mechatronics: Working Definition for us
“Mechatronics is the synergistic integration of sensors,
actuators, signal conditioning, power electronics,
decision and control algorithms, and computer hardware
and software to manage complexity, uncertainty, and
communication in engineered systems”.

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Introduction to Mechatronics
• Mechatronics can also be termed as replacement of mechanics with
electronics or enhance mechanics with electronics.

• For example, in modern automobiles, mechanical fuel injection

systems are now replaced with electronic fuel injection systems.

• This replacement made the automobiles more efficient and less

pollutant.

• With the help of microelectronics and sensor technology,

mechatronics systems are providing high levels of precision and
reliability.

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Introduction to Mechatronics
• By employment of reprogrammable microcontrollers or PLC, it is now
easy to add new functions and capabilities to a product or a system.

• Today’s domestic washing machines are “intelligent” and four-wheel

passenger automobiles are equipped with safety installations such as air-
bags, parking (proximity) sensors, antitheft electronic keys etc.

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Disciplinary Foundations of
Mechatronics
 Mechanical Engineering
 Electrical Engineering
 Computer Engineering
 Computer/Information Systems

Information Mechanical
Systems Systems

Mechatrnoics

Computer
Electrical
Systems
Systems

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Mechatronic Design Process

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Evolution of Mechatronics

• Technological advances in design, manufacturing, and operation

of engineered products/devices/processes can be traced through:

• Industrial revolution
• Semiconductor revolution
• Information revolution

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 Industrial Revolution

• Allowed design of products and processes for energy conversion

and transmission thus allowing the use of energy to do useful
work.
• Engineering designs of this era were largely mechanical
• e.g., operations of motion transmission, sensing, actuation, and computation
were performed using mechanical components such as cams, gears, levers,
and linkages).
• Purely mechanical systems suffer from
• Power amplification inability.
• Energy losses due to tolerances, inertia, and friction.

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 Examples of Predominantly Mechanical Designs

Float Valve
Bi-metallic Strip

Watt’s Governor
Cam Operated Switch
Thermostat 14
Semiconductor Revolution
• Led to the creation of integrated circuit (IC) technology.
• Effective, miniaturized, power electronics could amplify and deliver needed
amount of power to actuators.
• Signal conditioning electronics could filter and encode sensory data in
analog/digital format.
• Hard-wired, on-board, discrete analog/digital ICs provided rudimentary
computational and decision-making circuits for control of mechanical
devices.

An Integrated Circuit An A2D Converter An Operational 15

Information Revolution
• Development of VLSI technology led to the introduction of microprocessor,
microcomputer, and microcontroller.
• Now computing hardware is ubiquitous, cheap, and small.
• As computing hardware can be effortlessly interfaced with real world
electromechanical systems, it is now routinely embedded in engineered
products/processes for decision-making.
• Microcontrollers are replacing precision mechanical components, e.g., precision-
machined camshaft that in many applications functions as a timing device.
• Programmability of microcontrollers is providing a versatile and flexible
alternative to the hard-wired analog/digital computational hardware.
• Integrated computer-electrical-mechanical devices are now capable of
converting, transmitting, and processing both the physical energy and the virtual
energy (information).
• Result: Highly efficient products and processes are now being developed by
judicious selection and integration of sensors, actuators, signal conditioning, power
electronics, decision and control algorithms, and computer hardware and software.

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Mechatronics Revolution: Example

Masterless Cam Grinder 17

Elements of Mechatronics—Mechanical

• Mechanical elements refer to

• mechanical structure, mechanism, thermo-fluid, and hydraulic aspects of a
mechatronics system.
• Mechanical elements may include static/dynamic characteristics.
• A mechanical element interacts with its environment
purposefully.
• Mechanical elements require physical power to produce motion,
force, heat, etc.

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Machine Components: Basic Elements

Gear, rack, pinion, etc.

Cam and Follower

Chain and sprocket
Inclined plane wedge

Lever

Slider-Crank

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Linkage Wheel/Axle Springs
 Elements of Mechatronics—Electromechanical
• Electromechanical elements refer to:
• Sensors
• A variety of physical variables can be measured using sensors, e.g., light
using photo-resistor, level and displacement using potentiometer,
direction/tilt using magnetic sensor, sound using microphone, stress and
pressure using strain gauge, touch using micro-switch, temperature
using thermistor, and humidity using conductivity sensor
• Actuators
• DC servomotor, stepper motor, relay, solenoid, speaker, light emitting
diode (LED), shape memory alloy, electromagnet, and pump apply
commanded action on the physical process
• IC-based sensors and actuators (digital-compass, -potentiometer, etc.).

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Flexiforce DC Motor
Elements of Mechatronics—Electrical/Electronic

• Electrical elements refer to:

• Electrical components (e.g., resistor (R), capacitor (C), inductor (L),
transformer, etc.), circuits, and analog signals
• Electronic elements refer to:
• analog/digital electronics, transistors, thyristors, opto-isolators,
operational amplifiers, power electronics, and signal conditioning
• The electrical/electronic elements are used to interface electro-
mechanical sensors and actuators to the control
interface/computing hardware elements

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Elements of Mechatronics—Control Interface/Computing
Hardware

Control interface/computing hardware elements refer to:

Analog-to-digital (A2D) converter, digital-to-analog (D2A) converter,
digital input/output (I/O), counters, timers, microprocessor,
microcontroller, data acquisition and control (DAC) board, and digital
signal processing (DSP) board
Control interface hardware allows analog/digital interfacing
communication of sensor signal to the control computer and
communication of control signal from the control computer to the
actuator
Control computing hardware implements a control algorithm,
which uses sensor measurements, to compute control actions to
be applied by the actuator.

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 Elements of Mechatronics—Computer/Information System

Computer elements refer to hardware/software utilized to perform:

computer-aided dynamic system analysis, optimization, design, and simulation
virtual instrumentation
rapid control prototyping
hardware-in-the-loop simulation
PC-based data acquisition and control

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 Elements of Mechatronics

• Typical knowledgebase for optimal design and operation of mechatronic systems

comprises of:
• Dynamic system modeling and analysis
• Thermo-fluid, structural, hydraulic, electrical, chemical, biological, etc.
• Decision and control theory
• Sensors and signal conditioning
• Actuators and power electronics
• Data acquisition
• A2D, D2A, digital I/O, counters, timers, etc.
• Hardware interfacing
• Rapid control prototyping
• Embedded computing
Balance theory, simulation, hardware, and software

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Mechatronics Applications
Smart consumer products: home security, camera, microwave
oven, toaster, dish washer, laundry washer-dryer, climate control
units, etc.

Medical: implant-devices, assisted surgery, haptic, etc.

Defense: unmanned air, ground, and underwater vehicles, smart

munitions, jet engines, etc.

Manufacturing: robotics, machines, processes, etc.

Automotive: climate control, antilock brake, active suspension,

cruise control, air bags, engine management, safety, etc.

Network-centric, distributed systems: distributed robotics, tele-

robotics, intelligent highways, etc.
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 Embedded Systems in Automotive
Applications
■ Entertainment
■ Adaptive control
■ Generation II ABS
■Satellite services radio/GPS
■ Heads-up monitoring
■ Tele-operation
■ Night vision
■ Software control
■ Back-up collision sensor
■ Rain-sensing
■ Navigation
■ Auto parking
■ Tire pressure sensing
■ Simulators
■ Holonomic non-holonomic motion
■ Testing

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Using a radar to measure distance and velocity to autonomously maintain desired distance
between vehicles. 27
 Clearly, an automobile with 30–60
microcontrollers, up to 100 electric motors, about 200
pounds of wiring, a multitude of sensors, and
thousands of lines of software code can hardly be
classified as a strictly mechanical system.

 The automobile is being transformed into a

comprehensive mechatronic system.

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Structural Control

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 Home Automation
• Using a computer:
• Turn on the lights at preset times
• Adjust brightness
• Turn on the heat at preset times or
temperatures
• Serve as a security system

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Distributed Integrated Care Services
and Systems (iCare)

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 Robotics

The Robot is, of course, the ultimate Mechatronic System

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•Applications of Robotics
•Telemedicine/Telesurgery
•Unmanned vehicles
•Humanoids
•Manufacturing automation

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Robotics

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 Robotics

Indoor Robots DLR Gripper NASA Mars Rover Asimo Humanoid

Outdoor Robots Robot Base Station KUKA Manipulator

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Stepper, AC and DC Motors
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PLC and Microcontrollers

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 Mechatronics @ everywhere

Remote Robot Arm Manipulation

Remote Emergency Notification System

Type X 38
The Smart Walker
Mechatronics @ everywhere

Smart Irrigation System

Safe N Sound Driver

Smart Cane 39
Smart Cameras
Mobile Robotics: Pipeline Inspection & Repair

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Advantages of Mechatronics
Cost effective and good quality products
High degree of flexibility to modify or redesign
Very good performance characteristics
Wide area of application
Greater productivity in case of manufacturing organization
Greater extend of machine utilization

Disadvantages of Mechatronics
High Initial cost
Multi-disciplinary engineering background required to design and
implementation
Need of highly trained workers
Complexity in identification and correction of problems in the system
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Mechatronics In the future
In the future, growth in mechatronic systems will be
fueled by the growth in the constituent areas.
Advancements in traditional disciplines fuel the growth of
mechatronics systems by providing “enabling
technologies.” For example, the invention of the
microprocessor had a profound effect on the redesign of
mechanical systems and design of new mechatronics
systems.
We should expect continued advancements in cost-
effective microprocessors and microcontrollers, sensor
and actuator development enabled by advancements in
applications of MEMS, adaptive control methodologies
and real-time programming methods, networking and
wireless technologies, mature CAE technologies for
advanced system modeling, virtual prototyping, and
testing

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Summary
•The combination of mechanics, electronics, computer hardware and
software, and control systems will revolutionize technology in the
coming decades
•This revolution will create exciting career opportunities in:
•Automotive and Aerospace Industries
•Medicine and Biomedical Industries
•Robotics and Automated Manufacturing
•Computer Hardware and Software Industries
•Telecommunication Industries
•The market needs broadly educated engineers trained in
multidisciplinary systems engineering to take advantage of the exciting
career opportunities

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End

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