Mechatronics is a word originated in Japan in 1980s to denote the combination of technologies which go together to produce industrial robots.
A formal definition of Mechatronics is “the synergistic integration of Mechanics and Mechanical Engineering, Electronics, Computer technology, and IT to produce or enhance products and systems.’’
The various fields that make up Mechatronics is shown in Fig
Examples of such systems are
- Computers,
- Disk drives,
- Photocopiers,
- Fax machines,
- VCR,
- Washing machines,
- CNC machine tools,
- Robots, etc.
Today’s modern cars are also mechatronics product with the usage of electronic engine management system, collision detection, global positioning system, and others.
The concept of mechatronics is very important today to meet the customers’ ever increasing demands and still remain competitive in the global market. Very often a mechanical engineer without the mechatronics background is considered equivalent to a mechanical engineer without the engineering drawing knowledge.
Mechatronics requires thinking products and processes so transverse. Mechatronics is "burst the walls, with a steering matrix. The pilot at the highest level of the enterprise is essential in this context, to afford in front needs to be implemented.
The design should no longer be sequentially: the mechatronics approach requires thinking about the product as a whole (all skill areas at a time) and not by separating the mechanical part, then electronics, then the sensor – actuators and computers at risk to achieve additional cost prohibitive.
The project manager must master the various areas and not be an expert in one of mechatronics technology: It was necessary to avoid watching the draft with an eye mechanics or electronics. The pilot is here, as elsewhere, the role of a conductor, not a virtuoso.
The phases of integration are sensitive, such that an electronic assembly in a machine shop (or vice versa). There are telescoping and areas of project management and competence, which involves work that is done jointly, to ultimately obtain not a purely mechanical or purely electronic, but a set that combines the advantages of 2, which can not be separated.
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