What is Mechatronics
Mechatronics can be described as the integration of mechanical, electrical, electronics, and control engineering with computer technology. It can be also explained as a combination of mechanics, computing, electronics, control, molecular, and optical engineering. All of these features are combined to make the generation of simpler, reliable and economical systems. The word mechatronics is derived from mechanism and electronics, “mecha” from the mechanism and “Tronics” from electronics. So by this, we could have the developed product as the integration of electronics and mechanism. The automatic production line is an example of mechatronics it is a combination of the microprocessor control systems, electrical and mechanical systems. Mechatronics systems are used for the design of cars, robots, machine tools, and washing machine.
What mechatronics engineers do
They do the initiation and integration of the design, and they do have knowledge of many technologies. They have the ability to master the entire design process from concept to manufacturing. They are the major reason for the changes in our industrial tasks. Mechatronic engineers are capable of designing and developing high technology engineering systems. Mechatronics engineers do the manufacturing and designing of advanced products which would be reliable and economically better. New devices are produced by the mechatronics engineers and it is done by integrating electronics and mechanical systems using automated and intelligent computer control systems.
Why mechatronics
Mechatronics has made a big change in the designing and manufacturing process, in recent years we can see that the use of microelectronics and computers in the manufacturing sector has significantly improved the quality of products and integrated embedded technology has become an integral part of the automation. Mechatronics has made bigger changes in the automation field. Automation has been used in vast areas like manufacturing process, equipment process control, robotics, and home automation and a lot more. Mechatronics has enabled a high level of flexibility and reliability in products. Mechatronics has changed our markets by developing new products. Advanced products are developed by the integration of mechanical engineering with electronics and computer intelligence. In other words, it can be explained as mechatronics is adding intelligence to mechanical designs which were once purely mechanical and now it does better with the electronics.
What are the major areas where the mechatronics has made rapid developments
- Motion control and robotics
- Automotive systems
- Intelligent control
- Actuator and sensors
- Modeling and design
- System integration and manufacturing
- Micro-devices and optoelectronics
- Vibrations and noise control
How does the evolution of mechatronics take place
The evolution of mechatronics took place by four stages, in the first stage devices such as sensors and actuators were developed which can integrate electrical signal with mechanical action at the basic control level relay switches is an example for this. In the second stage, micro-electronics were integrated into electrically controlled devices. In the third stage of evolution, the mechatronics system is called a smart system because in this system they use microprocessors and microelectronics for the control strategy. In the fourth stage of evolution, the intelligence and fault detection isolation were added into the system. The evolution of mechatronics has made some revolutions such as the industrial revolution and information revolution. Designing products and processes for energy conversion and thus allowing the use of energy to do useful work. Sensing actuation and computation were done by mechanical components. Due to the introduction of semiconductors, the integrated circuits were developed and there were many changes due to the development of IC’s. The information revolution took place by the development of the VLSI technology which led to the introduction of the microprocessor, microprocessors, and microcontrollers and because of these changes micro-electronic devices where made and integrated circuits played a great part during the evolution of the mechatronics. These developments were useful for the integration of electronics and mechanics and thus the evolution of mechatronics took place.
What are the examples of mechatronic system
the mechatronic system can be widely seen in our day to day life, mechatronics systems are used in homes, offices, schools, and shops, major mechatronics systems are
- Domestic appliances such as fridges, microwave ovens, vacuum cleaner, mixers, televisions, telephones, digital cameras…
- Security systems, and automatic gate control system
- Office equipment such as laser printers, hard drive positioning system, LCD, scanner…
- Banking equipment such as automatic teller machines, and cash registers
What are the applications and advantages of mechatronics
Mechatronics has many applications like they are used in automobiles, in the automobile mechatronics covers the electronic and mechanical part anti-lock braking system is designed with the help of mechatronics, mechatronics has played a major role in a computer-aided and integrated manufacturing system. Robotics, automation, and servomechanism are the other applications of mechatronics. There are many advantages for the mechatronics system they are simplified mechanical design, rapid machine setup, cost-effectiveness, environmentally friendly, good performance and productivity. Mechatronic systems are of lower cost and higher quality.