L1 (25 July 2014)

Background of Mechatronics
L1.1. What precisely is Mechatronics?
A Venn diagram illustrating the synergy of several engineering disciplines that constitute the field
mechatronics (see figure below).

Figure 1.

Venn diagram illustration of mechatronics.

In several technical areas the integration of products or processes and electronics can be observed.
This is especially true for mechanical systems which developed since about 1980. These systems
changed from electro-mechanical systems with discrete electrical and mechanical parts to integrated
electronic-mechanical systems with sensors, actuators, and digital microelectronics. These
integrated systems, as seen in figure below, are called mechatronics systems, with the connection of
MECHAnics and elecTRONICS.

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Figure 2.

Historical development of mechanical, electrical, and electronic systems (Bishop,

2002), p.25.

Mechatronics is the field of study concerned with the design, selection, analysis, and control of
systems that combine mechanical elements with electronic components, including computers and/or
microcontrollers. In other words, it is an interdisciplinary field, in which the following disciplines
act together:

Mechanical systems (mechanical elements, machines, precision mechanics);

Electronic systems (microelectronics, power electronics, sensor and actuator technology);
and
Information technology (systems theory, automation, software engineering, artificial
intelligence).

The preliminary definition is: "Mechatronics is the synergetic integration of mechanical engineering
with electronics and intelligent computer control in the design and manufacturing of industrial
products and processes" (Harashima, Tomizuka, & Fukuda, 1996). This definition was coined by
Yasakawa Electric Company (Harashima et al., 1996) to refer to the use of electronics in
mechanical control (i.e., mecha from mechanical engineering and tronics from electrical or
electronic engineering). Later, in (Auslander, Ridgely, & Ringgenberg, 2002), the authors have
defined mechatronics as the application of complex decision-making to the operation of physical
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systems. This definition removes the specific technology to be used to perform the operation from
the definition.
1. Identify a Mechatronics System and Its primary Elements.
A block diagram of a typical mechatronic system is shown in Figure 3 ((Alciatore & Histand,
2012)-P.3).

Figure 3.

Mechatronics system components.

The actuators produce motion or cause some action; the sensors detect the state of the system
parameters, inputs, and outputs (both sensors and actuators are key to implementing feedback
control of motion-control system); digital devices control the system; conditioning and interfacing
circuits provide connections between the control circuits and the input/output devices; and graphical
displays provide visual feedback to users.
In fact, a mechatronic system has at its core a mechanical system which needs to be commanded or
controlled. Such a system could be a vehicle braking system, a positioning table, an oven, or an
assembly machine. The controller needs information about the state of the system. This information
is obtained from variety of sensors, such as those that give proximity, velocity, temperature, or
displacement information. In many cases, the signals produced by the sensors are not in a form
ready to be read by the controller and need some signal conditioning operations performed on them.
The conditioned, sensed signals are then converted to a digital form (if not already in that form) and
presented to the controller.
The controller is the mind of the mechatronic system, which processes user commands and sensed
signals to generate command signals to be sent to the actuators in the system. The user commands
are obtained from a variety of devices, including command buttons, graphical user interfaces
(GUIs), touch screens, or pads. In some cases, the command signals are sent to the actuators without
utilizing any feedback information from the sensors. This is called open-loop operation, and for it
to work, this requires a good calibration between the input and output of the system with minimal
disturbances. The more common mode of operation is the closed-loop mode in which the command
signals sent to the actuators utilize the feedback information from the sensors. This mode of
operation does not require calibration information, and it is much better suited for handling
disturbances and noise.
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In many cases, the command signals to the actuators are first converted from a digital to an analog
form. Amplifiers implemented in the form of drive circuits also can be used to amplify the
command signals sent to the actuators. The choice of the controller for the mechatronic system
depends on many factors, including cost, size, ease of development, and transportability. Many
mechatronic systems use personal computers (PCs) with data acquisition capabilities for
implementation. Examples include control of manufacturing processes such as welding, cutting, and
assembly. A significant number of controllers for a mechatronic system are implemented using a
microcontroller unit (MCU), which is a single-chip device that includes a processor, memory, and
input-output devices on the same chip. Microcontrollers often are used for control of many
consumer devices, including toys, hand-held electronic devices, and vehicle safety systems. Control
systems that use MCUs often are referred to as embedded control systems. Circuits also can be used
to amplify the command signals sent to the actuators.
Mechatronic systems are widely used in everyday life. For illustrating mechatronics systems, we
will discuss four available systems:

Industrial Robots

Figure 4.

Industrial robot (Jouaneh, 2013), p.3.

Robots, whether of the fixed type (such as industrial robots) or of the mobile type, are good
examples of mechatronic systems. Figure above shows an industrial robot arm. A robot is a
mechanical device that can be programmed to perform a wide variety of applications. The main
components of a robot system are the controller and the mechanical arm. The controller handles
several operations, including the user interface, programming, and control of the arm. The
mechanical arm consists of several mechanical links that are connected at joints. An actuator is used
to drive each link, and each actuator has a feedback sensor to indicate the location of the link. A
multi-link robot is a complicated device that requires coordination of the motion of the links. This
job is done by the control software, which processes information from the desired motion of the arm,
and the feedback sensors, which send commands to the actuators or the servomotors to perform the
desired task. To enable a robot to handle variation in the environment in which it operates,
additional sensors are normally used (such as vision and proximity).

Mobile Robots

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Figure 5.

Roomba vacuum-cleaning robot.

Mobile robots are currently being used in a wide diversity of applications. Whether vacuum
cleaning, assisting soldiers in combat operations, or delivering food and medicine in hospitals, their
use is increasing. Similar to their fixed counterparts, a mobile robot consists of a number of
modules that are commanded by a controller. Due to their operation in unstructured environments,
mobile robots rely heavily on sensors to guide them in navigation and to avoid obstacles. Examples
of sensors used by mobile robots include ultrasonic proximity sensors, vision sensors, and global
positioning system sensors. An example of a mobile robot is the Roomba vacuum-cleaning robot
(see figure above) made by iRobot Corporation. The Roomba has a cylindrical shape, two wheel
modules, and a sensor to detect obstacles. The Roomba has all of the main components of a
mechatronic system: actuators (wheel modules), sensors (target and dirt), and a controller.

Scanner

Figure 6.

A flatbed scanner.

A scanner (see figure above) is a device that captures an image of a document and converts it into a
format suitable for electronic storage. The main components of a scanner include the scanning head,
the transport device, the controller, and the control software. The controller commands the transport
device which carries the scanner head. The transport device uses a stepper motor and a system of
gears and belts to move the scanning head in precise steps. After each step, the transport device
stops, and a scan is sampled. The scanning head involves some form of a line camera that measures
the reflectivity of a scanned line. The scanned line is brought to the scan sensor through a system of
mirrors and lenses. The output of the scanning head is processed by the control software to create a
map of the scanned document. This map is further analyzed to reveal all of the features in the
document and to filter any noise signals from the captured data. The control software sequences the
operation of the scanner and communicates with the PC. When the scanning job is completed, the
scanned image is then transferred to a PC using a USB or a parallel-port connection. This
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mechatronics system involves all of the elements of a typical control system: sensor, actuator, and
controller. It is also an example of a discrete-event system.

Parking Gate

Figure 7.

Parking gate.

A parking garage gate (see figure above) is another example of a mechatronics system that involves
a number of elements. The system has an electric motor to raise and lower the gate arm. It also has a
proximity sensor to prevent the gate from striking people and vehicles. In addition, it has a
microcontroller in which software is used to run the gate in different operating modes. Typically, a
parking-garage gate operates as follows: The user presses a button to get a ticket or swipes a card in
a card scanner. Once the ticket is picked up by the user or the card is validated, the gate arm rotates
upward. The gate arm remains in a raised position until the vehicle has completely cleared the gate,
at which point the gate drops down. The operation of each stage of this system is dependent on
sensor feedback and timing information. The controller for this system cycles between the different
operating stages each time a vehicle needs to enter the parking garage.

Printer Demo
Dance Demo
Walk Demo
Agile Eye Demo

2. Define the Elements of a general Measurement System.

A fundamental part of many mechatronic systems is a measurement system composed of the four
basic parts illustrated in figure below.

Figure 8.

Elements of a measurement system (Jouaneh, 2013), p.210.

The physical quantity changes a property of the transducer (such as its resistance, inductance,
or magnetic coupling).
The transducer is a sensing device that converts a physical input into an output, usually a
voltage.
The signal conditioning device performs filtering, amplification, or other signal conditioning
on the transducer output.
The term sensor is often used to refer to the transducer or to the combination of transducer
and signal processor.
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Finally, the display or recording device is an instrument, a computer, a hard-copy device, or

simply a display that maintains the sensor data for online monitoring or subsequent
processing.

REFERENCES
Alciatore, D. G., & Histand, M. B. (2012). Introduction to mechatronics and measurement systems
(4th ed.). New York, NY, USA: McGraw-Hill, ISBN 978-007-108604-2.
Auslander, D., Ridgely, J., & Ringgenberg, J. (2002). Control software for mechanical systems:
object-oriented design in a real-time world. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall PTR.
Bishop, R. H. (Ed.). (2002). The mechatronics handbook. Boca Raton, Florida, USA: CRC Press
LLC, ISBN 0-8493-0066-5.
Harashima, F., Tomizuka, M., & Fukuda, T. (1996). Mechatronicswhat is it, why and how.
IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, 1(1), 1-4.
Jouaneh, M. (2013). Fundamentals of mechatronics. Stamford, CT, USA: Cengage Learning, ISBN
978-1-111-56901-3.

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