Chapter 1

Introduction

References:
1. Mechatronics System Design- Devdas Shetty and Richard Kolk
2. Mechatronics- W. Bolton
3. The Mechatronics Handbook- Robert H. Bishop
 What Is Mechatronics?
• Mechatronics is a methodology used for the optimal design of
electromechanical products.

• Multi-disciplinary system design has employed a sequential

design-by-discipline .

• The Mechatronic design methodology is based on concurrent,

instead of sequential approach to discipline design, resulting in
products with more synergy approach.

• Mechatronics is the result of applying information system to

physical systems.
A Mechatronic system is not an electromechanical system and is
more than a control system.
 Mechatronics Key Elements
1-Information Systems: Includes all aspects of information
transmission, from signal processing to control systems to analysis
techniques. It is combination of four disciplines –communication
systems, signal processing, control system and numerical methods.

a-Modeling and Simulation:

- Modeling is the process of representing the behavior of a real system

by a collection of mathematical equations and logic.

- Models can be broadly categorized as static model ( no energy

transfer) or dynamic model (has energy transfer)

- Models are cause-effect structures: they except external information

and process it with their logic and equations to produce one or more
outputs.
-Visually intuitive modeling like block diagram based modeling is used.

- Examples of block diagram modeling environment are matrixx, Easy5,

Simulink, VisSim, and Lab View.

-Simulation is the process of solving the model and it is performed on a

computer.

-The process of simulation can be divided into three sections: initialization,

iteration, and termination.

- In initialization the equations for each of the blocks must be sorted

according to the pattern in which the blocks are connected.

- The iteration section solves any differential equations present in the

model using numerical integration and/or differentiation.

- The display section of a simulation is used to present and post process

the output.
b- Automatic Controls

_ Mechatronics appears to be nothing more than control system

engineering.

What is the difference?

• The difference is the sequence of design steps

• In a Mechatronic system a concurrent approach is used instead

of a series of design steps.
C-Optimization

• Optimization solves the problem of distributing limited resources

throughout a system such that pre specified aspects of its behavior
are satisfied.

• In Mechatronics optimization is primarily used to:

1. Establish the optimal system configuration
2. Identification of optimal trajectories
3. Control system design
4. Identification of model parameters

• Resources are referred to as design variables, aspects of system

behavior as objectives, and system governing relationships
(equations and logic) as constraints.
• The system relationship and resource constraints are often called
just constraints.

• These are sometimes further divided into equality and inequality

constraints.

• The system constraints are usually equality constraints.

• The resource constraints may be a combination of both.

• The objective is called an objective function and it is common in

engineering applications always to minimize the objective function.

• There is no prescribed general form that an objective function

must obey. However the performance of the search algorithm
especially gradient based algorithm will be strongly tied to the
characteristics of the objective function.
 2. Mechanical Systems
• Mechanical systems are concerned with the behavior of matter
under the action of forces.

• Such Systems are categorized as rigid, deformable, or fluid in

nature.

• Failure analysis and mechanics of materials are major fields based

on deformable body systems.

• The field of fluid mechanics consists of compressible and

incompressible fluids.

• Newtonian mechanics provides the basis for most mechanical

systems and consists of three independent and absolute concepts:
space, time and mass.
 3-Electrical Systems
• Electrical systems are concerned with the behavior of three
fundamental quantities: charge, current and voltage.

• Electrical systems consist of two categories: power systems and

communication systems.

• Electrical systems are integral part of a Mechatronics application.

• The following electrical components are frequently used:

- Motors and generators

- Sensors and actuators (Transducers)

- Solid state devices including computers

- Circuits (signal conditioning, impedance matching, amplifiers…)

-Contact devices (relays, circuit breakers, switches…)

 Sensors
• Sensors are required to monitor the performance of machines and
processes.

• The monitoring devices are generally located near the manufacturing

process.

• Sensors are needed to provide real time information that can assist
controllers in identifying potential bottlenecks, breakdowns, and other
problems with individual machines and with total manufacturing
environment before they upset production .

• Some of the more common measurement variables in Mechatronics

systems are temperature, speed, position, force, torque, and
acceleration.
• The characteristics that are important when one is measuring these
variables include the dynamics of the sensor, stability, resolution,
precision, robustness, size, and signal processing.

• The need for less expensive and precise sensors, as well as integration
of the sensor and signal processing on a common carrier or on one chip,
has become important.

• Progress in semiconductor manufacturing technology has made it

possible to integrate various sensory functions .

• Intelligent sensors are available that not only sense information but
process it as well.

• These sensors facilitate operations normally performed by the control

algorithm, which include automatic noise filtering, linearization
sensitivity and self calibration.

• Example of such sensor is two-axis micromachined accelerometer for

gesture recognition.
 • Measurement systems consists of three basic elements

Signal
Sensor Display
Quantity being Conditioner Value of the
measured quantity
A c t u a t o r s
• Actuation involves a physical acting on the process, such as the ejection
of a work piece from a conveyor system initiated by a sensor. Actuators
are usually electrical, mechanical, fluid power or pneumatic based. They
transform electrical inputs into mechanical outputs such as force, angle,
and position.

• Actuators can be classified into three general groups.

- Electromagnetic actuators, (e.g., AC and DC electrical motors, stepper
motors, electromagnets)

- Fluid power actuators, (e.g., hydraulics, pneumatics)

- Unconventional actuators (e.g., piezoelectric, magnetostrictive, memory

metal)

• There are also special actuators for high-precision applications that

require fast responses, They are often applied to controls that
compensate for friction, nonlinearities, and limiting parameters.
 Real-Time Interfacing
•The process of fusing and synchronizing model, sensor, and actuator
information is called real time interfacing or hardware-in-the-loop
simulation.

• During this design phase many of the noncontrol subsystems of the

model are replaced with actual hardware resulting in a two part model:
part mathematical and part real.

• For Mechatronics applications real-time interfacing includes analog to

digital (A/D) and digital to analog (D/ A) conversion, analog signal
conditioning circuits, and sampling theory.

• The main purpose of the real-time interface system is to provide data

acquisition and control function for the computer.

• The purpose of the acquisition function is to reconstruct a sensor

waveform as a digital sequence and make it available to the computer
software for processing.
• The control function serves a dual purpose: beginning with a digital
sequence, it produces an analog approximation as a series of small steps.

• There are two types of real time interface systems: external and
internal bus system.

• An internal bus system is computer specific and consists of a board, or

card, which plugs into internal computer bus and an external screw
terminal or termination, board connected to the internal card via ribbon
cable.

• Internal bus systems are popular because of their high speed, low cost
and small size.

• External bus systems are computer independent and normally

connected to the host computer through its serial port, which is
responsible for the relatively slow data rates, for example RS-232 is
limited to 9600 baud.
•Often slower and more expensive external bus systems do most of
their processing independently of the host computer .

• Because they have their own microprocessor, power supply, and

memory the host computer is relieved of much of the data
acquisition and control processing functions.

• External bus systems are well suited to remote and distributed

sensing and control applications.

• Using RS-422, distances between the host and the external bus
system can approach half a mile.
Signals transmitted through the A/D and D/ A devices fall into three
categories:
1. Analog Signals: Low voltage or current waveforms often in the  5 V,
 10 V, 0-10 V or 4-20 mA range.

2. Discrete Signals: Binary in nature, either high or low in value.

3. Frequency Signals: Periodic signals occur in many data acquisition

and control applications. Laser tachometer used for precise speed
sensing of rotating machinery produces a pulse train frequency
output usually one pulse per revolution.
 4-Computer Systems
- For mechatronic applications Computer system hardware is usually restricted to
computer-specific circuits and devices. These include logic networks, flip flops,
counters, timers, triggers, integrated circuits, and microprocessors.

- Fast computer hardware is of little value without the appropriate software to

operate it.

-Assembly language was the first step toward a higher Ievel language.

-For more powerful (higher-level) programming languages to be used, compilers

were developed. Some of the most well-known high-level languages are BASIC,
FORTRAN, C, and Pascal.

- A visual programming language is designed to be intuitive, using wires and

pictures to represent equalities and functions instead of complicated text
expressions.

-Excellent Block diagram based Visual languages, including Matrixx, Easy5,

SimuLink, VisSim, and LabView are popular in mechatronic applications.
Microprocessor Based Controllers
Integrated Design Issues in Mechatronics
Advance approaches in Mechatronics
Advance approaches in Mechatronics
Advance approaches in Mechatronics

Intelligent Supervisory Control

 Mechatronic Applications
• Autonomous production cells with image based object recognition.

•Monitoring and control of the welding process.

•Integrated supervisory systems with multi-process control capability.

• Flexible manufacturing systems with off and on line programming.

• Biorobotics- which utilizes bio functions for applications in

environmental control.

• Endoscopic and orthopedic surgery.

•Magnetically levitated vehicles.

• Robotics in nuclear inspection and space applications.