UNIT 1 INTRODUCTION TO MECHATRONICS SYSTEMS

Mechatronics is the synergistic combination of Mechanical engineering, Electronic engineering, Computer engineering, Control engineering, and Systems Design engineering in order to design, and manufacture useful products. The term mechatronics is defined as a multidisciplinary engineering system design, that is to say it rejects splitting engineering into separate disciplines.

A mechatronics engineer unites the principles of mechanics, electronics, and computing to generate a simpler, more economical and reliable system. Mechatronics is centered on mechanics, electronics, computing, control engineering, molecular engineering (from nanochemistry and biology), and optical engineering, which, combined, make possible the generation of simpler, more economical, reliable and versatile systems. The portmanteau "mechatronics" was coined by Tetsuro Mori, the senior engineer of the Japanese company Yaskawa in 1969. An industrial robot is a prime example of a mechatronics system; it includes aspects of electronics, mechanics, and computing to do its day-today jobs. The development of mechatronics has gone through three stages: The first stage corresponds to the years around the introduction of word mechatronics. During this stage, technologies used in mechatronics systems developed rather independently of each other and individually.With start of eighties a synergic integration of different technologies started taking place.A notable example is opto-electronics, an integration of optics and electronics. The concept of hardware/software codesign also started in this year. The third stage, which is considered as start of Mechatronics Age, starts with the early nineties. The most notable aspect of this stage are more and more integration of different engineering disciplinesand increased use of computational intelligence in the mechatronics products and systems.Another important development in the third stage is the concept of micromechatronis, i.e., start of miniaturization the components such as microactuators and microsensors.Design of such products and processes, therefore, has to be the outcome of a multi-

disciplinary activity rather than an interdisciplinary one. Hence mechatronics challenges the traditional engineering thinking, because the way it is operating, is crossing the boundaries between the traditional engineering disciplines.

SENSORS A sensor is a device which receives and responds to a signal. A sensor's sensitivity indicates how much the sensor's output changes when the measured quantity changes. For instance, if the mercury in a thermometer moves 1 cm when the temperature changes by 1 C, the sensitivity is 1 cm/C (it is basically the slope Dy/Dx assuming a linear characteristic). Sensors that measure very small changes must have very high sensitivities. A good sensor obeys the following rules: Is sensitive to the measured property Is insensitive to any other property likely to be encountered in its application Does not influence the measured property Characteristics of sensor The sensitivity may in practice differ from the value specified. This is called a sensitivity error, but the sensor is still linear. Since the range of the output signal is always limited, the output signal will eventually reach a minimum or maximum when the measured property exceeds the limits. The full scale range defines the maximum and minimum values of the measured property. If the output signal is not zero when the measured property is zero, the sensor has an offset or bias. This is defined as the output of the sensor at zero input. If the sensitivity is not constant over the range of the sensor, this is called nonlinearity. Usually this is defined by the amount the output differs from ideal behavior over the full range of the sensor, often noted as a percentage of the full range. If the deviation is caused by a rapid change of the measured property over time, there is a dynamic error. Often, this behaviour is described with a bode plot showing sensitivity error and phase shift as function of the frequency of a periodic input signal. If the output signal slowly changes independent of the measured property, this is defined as drift (telecommunication). Long term drift usually indicates a slow degradation of sensor properties over a long period of time. Noise is a random deviation of the signal that varies in time. Hysteresis is an error caused by when the measured property reverses direction, but there is some finite lag in time for the sensor to respond, creating a different offset error in one direction than in the other. If the sensor has a digital output, the output is essentially an approximation of the measured property. The approximation error is also called digitization error.

If the signal is monitored digitally, limitation of the sampling frequency also can cause a dynamic error, or if the variable or added noise noise changes periodically at a frequency near a multiple of the sampling rate may induce aliasing errors. The sensor may to some extent be sensitive to properties other than the property being measured. For example, most sensors are influenced by the temperature of their environment. DISPLACEMENT AND POSITION SENSORS Displacement Measurement Measurement of displacement is the basis of measuring: Position Velocity Acceleration Stress Force Pressure Proximity Thickness Displacement Sensors types Potentiometers displacement sensors Inductive displacement sensors Capacitive displacement sensors Eddy current displacement sensors Piezoelectric displacement sensors Ultrasonic displacement sensors Magnetostrictive displacement sensors Optical encoder displacement sensors Strain Gages displacement sensors Resistive displacement sensors: An electrically conductive wiper that slides against a fixed resistive element. To measure displacement, a potentiometer is typically wired in a voltage divider configuration.

A known voltage is applied to the resistor ends. The contact is attached to the moving object of interest The output voltage at the contact is proportional to the displacement.