Mechatronics is a blend of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, computer control and information technology. Mechatronics is a design process to create more functional and adaptable products. By integrating the best design practices with the most advanced technologies, mechatronics aims at comprehending high-quality products, promising at the same time a substantial reduction of time and costs of manufacturing. Mechatronic systems are manifold and range from machine components, motion generators, and power producing machines to more complex devices, such as robotic systems and transportation vehicles. Over the years mechatronics has come to mean a methodology for designing products that exhibit fast, precise performance. These characteristics can be achieved by considering not only the mechanical design, but also the use of servo controls, sensors, and electronics. Mechatronics has been popular in Japan and Europe for many years but has been slow to gain industrial and academic acceptance as a field and practice in Great Britain and the United States. In the past, machine and product design has been the domain of mechanical engineers. After the machine was designed by mechanical engineers, solutions to control and programming problems were added by software and computer engineers. This sequential-engineering approach usually resulted in less-than-optimal designs and is now recognized as less than optimal itself. The prime role of mechatronics is one of initiation and integration throughout the entire design process, with the mechatronics engineer as the leader. Mechatronic Systems Applications delivers an excellent review of contemporary work in the sphere of mechatronics with applications in numerous fields, like robotics, medical and assistive technology, human-machine interaction, unmanned vehicles, manufacturing, and education. Experts in the interdisciplinary mechatronics field must be able to use the special knowledge resources of other people and the particular blend of technologies that will provide the most economic, innovative, elegant, and appropriate solution to the problem at hand. Industry needs mechatronics engineers to continue to rapidly develop innovative products with performance, quality and low cost.

Mechatronics is a blend of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, computer control and information technology. Mechatronics is a design process to create more functional and adaptable products. By integrating the best design practices with the most advanced technologies, mechatronics aims at comprehending high-quality products, promising at the same time a substantial reduction of time and costs of manufacturing. Mechatronic systems are manifold and range from machine components, motion generators, and power producing machines to more complex devices, such as robotic systems and transportation vehicles. Over the years mechatronics has come to mean a methodology for designing products that exhibit fast, precise performance. These characteristics can be achieved by considering not only the mechanical design, but also the use of servo controls, sensors, and electronics. Mechatronics has been popular in Japan and Europe for many years but has been slow to gain industrial and academic acceptance as a field and practice in Great Britain and the United States. In the past, machine and product design has been the domain of mechanical engineers. After the machine was designed by mechanical engineers, solutions to control and programming problems were added by software and computer engineers. This sequential-engineering approach usually resulted in less-than-optimal designs and is now recognized as less than optimal itself. The prime role of mechatronics is one of initiation and integration throughout the entire design process, with the mechatronics engineer as the leader. Mechatronic Systems Applications delivers an excellent review of contemporary work in the sphere of mechatronics with applications in numerous fields, like robotics, medical and assistive technology, human-machine interaction, unmanned vehicles, manufacturing, and education. Experts in the interdisciplinary mechatronics field must be able to use the special knowledge resources of other people and the particular blend of technologies that will provide the most economic, innovative, elegant, and appropriate solution to the problem at hand. Industry needs mechatronics engineers to continue to rapidly develop innovative products with performance, quality and low cost.

During the last decade, mechatronic systems have been found in many things and many experiences of our everyday lives. The word �mechatronics� was first used by the engineer Tetsuro Mori in Japan in 1969. Mechatronics is a multidisciplinary area of study combining mechanics, electronics, computers and automation. A synergistic collaboration among these fields of science involves a high potential for accomplishments and achievements now accessible to a wide variety of engineers. Mechatronic Systems: Design, Performance and Applications is a source of the latest research and technical notes in mechatronics. This book is useful for students, researchers, and all readers interested in this topic.

Mechatronics, the synergistic blend of mechanics, electronics, and computer science, has evolved over the past twenty five years, leading to a novel stage of engineering design. By integrating the best design practices with the most advanced technologies, mechatronics aims at realizing high-quality products, guaranteeing at the same time a substantial reduction of time and costs of manufacturing. Mechatronic systems are manifold and range from machine components, motion generators, and power producing machines to more complex devices, such as robotic systems and transportation vehicles. With its twenty chapters, which collect contributions from many researchers worldwide, this book provides an excellent survey of recent work in the field of mechatronics with applications in various fields, like robotics, medical and assistive technology, human-machine interaction, unmanned vehicles, manufacturing, and education. We would like to thank all the authors who have invested a great deal of time to write such interesting chapters, which we are sure will be valuable to the readers. Chapters 1 to 6 deal with applications of mechatronics for the development of robotic systems. Medical and assistive technologies and human-machine interaction systems are the topic of chapters 7 to 13.Chapters 14 and 15 concern mechatronic systems for autonomous vehicles. Chapters 16-19 deal with mechatronics in manufacturing contexts. Chapter 20 concludes the book, describing a method for the installation of mechatronics education in schools.

An Up-To-Date Reference on the Latest Developments of MechatronicsGeared toward engineers, designers, researchers, educators, and students, Mechatronics: Fundamentals and Applications focuses on integrating practice with theory relevant to electromechanical and multidomain systems. A result of the Distinguished Visiting Fellowship of the Royal Acad

Mechatronics is a core subject for engineers, combining elements of mechanical and electronic engineering into the development of computer-controlled mechanical devices such as DVD players or anti-lock braking systems. This book is the most comprehensive text available for both mechanical and electrical engineering students and will enable them to engage fully with all stages of mechatronic system design. It offers broader and more integrated coverage than other books in the field with practical examples, case studies and exercises throughout and an Instructor's Manual. A further key feature of the book is its integrated coverage of programming the PIC microcontroller, and the use of MATLAB and Simulink programming and modelling, along with code files for downloading from the accompanying website.*Integrated coverage of PIC microcontroller programming, MATLAB and Simulink modelling*Fully developed student exercises, detailed practical examples*Accompanying website with Instructor's Manual, downloadable code and image bank

In this textbook, fundamental methods for model-based design of mechatronic systems are presented in a systematic, comprehensive form. The method framework presented here comprises domain-neutral methods for modeling and performance analysis: multi-domain modeling (energy/port/signal-based), simulation (ODE/DAE/hybrid systems), robust control methods, stochastic dynamic analysis, and quantitative evaluation of designs using system budgets. The model framework is composed of analytical dynamic models for important physical and technical domains of realization of mechatronic functions, such as multibody dynamics, digital information processing and electromechanical transducers. Building on the modeling concept of a technology-independent generic mechatronic transducer, concrete formulations for electrostatic, piezoelectric, electromagnetic, and electrodynamic transducers are presented. More than 50 fully worked out design examples clearly illustrate these methods and concepts and enable independent study of the material.

The technical committee on mechatronics formed by the International Federation for the Theory of Machines and Mechanisms, in Prague, Czech Republic, adopted the following definition for the term: Mechatronics is the Synergistic combination of precision mechanical engineering, electronic control and systems thinking in the design products and manufacturing process. Recent developments in computer engineering, including the exponential improvements in microprocessors, Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), along with advances in computational techniquesand advances and the product design process, has led to the field of mechatronics evolving as a highly powerful and most cost effective means for product realization. This volume focuses on mechatronics in transportation and vehicular systems and clearly reveals the effectiveness and essential significance of techniques available and with further development, the continuing essential role they will play in the future.

Mechatronics has emerged as its own discipline over the past decade, yet no reference has lived up to the demands of being a working guide for designing and implementing the new generation of mechatronic systems. Uniting an international team of leading experts, Mechatronic Systems: Devices, Design, Control, Operation and Monitoring rises to the ch

The book offers a snapshot of the state-of-art in the field of model-based mechatronic system design. It covers topics including machine design and optimization, predictive systems in manufacturing networks, and the development of software for modeling and simulation of processes, which are supplemented by practical case studies. The book is a collection of fifteen selected contributions presented during the Workshop on Mechatronic Systems, held on March 17-19, 2014, in Mahdia, Tunisia. The workshop was jointly organized by the Laboratory of Mechanics Modeling and Production (LA2MP) of the National School of Engineers Sfax, Tunisia, and the Laboratory for Mechanical Systems and Materials Engineering (LISMMA) of Higher Institute of Mechanics (SUPMECA), Paris, France.