Mektronik

Ing. Mecatronica
What is Mechatronics?
1.1 Basic Definitions
1.2 Key Elements of Mechatronics
1.3 Historical Perspective
1.4 The Development of the Automobile
as a Mechatronic System
1.5 Whatis Mechatronics? And What’s Next?
Mechatronics is a natural stage in the evolutionary process of modern engineering design. The development
of the computer, and then the microcomputer, embeddedcomputers, and associated information
technologies and software advances, made mechatronics an imperative in the latter part of the twentieth
century. Standing at the threshold of the twenty-firstcentury, with expected advances in integrated bioelectro-
mechanical systems, quantum computers, nano- and pico-systems, and other unforeseen developments,
the future of mechatronics is full of potentialand bright possibilities.
1.1 Basic Definitions
The definition of mechatronics has evolved since the original definition by the Yasakawa Electric Company.
In trademark application documents,Yasakawa defined mechatronics in this way [1,2]:
The word, mechatronics, is composed of “mecha” from mechanism and the “tronics” from electronics.
In other words, technologies and developed products willbe incorporating electronics more and more
into mechanisms, intimately and organically, and making it impossible to tell where one ends and the
other begins.
The definition of mechatronicscontinued to evolve after Yasakawa suggested the original definition. One
oft quoted definition of mechatronics was presented by Harashima, Tomizuka, and Fukada in 1996 [3].
In their words, mechatronics isdefined as
the synergistic integration of mechanical engineering, with electronics and intelligent computer control
in the design and manufacturing of industrial products and processes.
That sameyear, another definition was suggested by Auslander and Kempf [4]:
Mechatronics is the application of complex decision making to the operation of physical systems.
Yet another definition due to...