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Unit 01

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Unit 01

Uploaded by

Rushikesh Rohamare
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Unit 01

What is “Mechatronics”?
Mechatronics is a concept of Japanese origin (1980’s) and can be
defined as the application of electronics and computer technology to control
the motions of mechanical systems.

Definition of Mechatronics
It is a multidisciplinary approach to product and manufacturing system
design (Figure). It involves application of electrical, mechanical, control and
computer engineering to develop products, processes and systems with
greater flexibility, ease in redesign and ability of reprogramming. It
concurrently includes all these disciplines.

Mechatronics: a multi-disciplinary approach


Mechatronics can also be termed as replacement of mechanics with
electronics or enhance mechanics with electronics. For example, in modern
automobiles, mechanical fuel injection systems are now replaced with
electronic fuel injection systems. This replacement made the automobiles
more efficient and less pollutant. With the help of microelectronics and
sensor technology, mechatronics systems are providing high levels of
precision and reliability. It is now possible to move (in x – y plane) the
work
table of a modern production machine tool in a step of 0.0001 mm. By
employment of reprogrammable microcontrollers/microcomputers, it is now easy
to add new functions and capabilities to a product or a system. Today’s domestic
washing machines are “intelligent” and four-wheel passenger automobiles are
equipped with safety installations such as air-bags, parking (proximity) sensors,
antitheft electronic keys etc.
Concept of Mechatronics System
Evolution Level of Mechatronics
1. Primary Level Mechatronics: This level incorporates I/O devices such as
sensors and actuators that integrates electrical signals with mechanical
action at the basic control levels.
Examples: Electrically controlled fluid valves and relays
2. Secondary Level Mechantronics: This level integrates microelectronics
into electrically controlled devices.
Examples: Cassette players
3. Third Level Mechatronics: This level incorporates advanced feedback
functions into control strategy thereby enhancing the quality in terms of
sophistication called smart system.
 The control strategy includes microelectronics, microprocessor and
other ‘ Application Specific Integrated Circuits’ (ASIC)
Example: Control of Electrical motor used to activate industrial robots,
hard disk, CD drives and automatic washing machines.
4. Fourth Level Mechatronics: This level incorporates intelligent control in
mechatronics system. It introduces intelligence and fault detection and
isolation (FDI) capability systems.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Mechatronics system:

Components of Mechatronics system:


The term mechatronics system (sometimes referred to as smart device)
encompasses a myriad of devices and systems. Increasingly,
microcontrollers are embedded in the elctromechanical devices, creating
much more flexibility and control possibilities in system design.

Components of a typical Mechatronics system

 Actuators: produce motion or cause some action. Solenoids, voice calls, DC


motors, Stepper motor, servomotor, hydraulic, pneumatic.
 Sensors: detect the state of the system parameters, inputs and outputs.
Switches, potentiometer, photoelctrics, digital encoder, strain gauge,
thermocouple, accelerometer etc.
 Input/output Signal conditioning and interfacing: provide connection between
the control system circuits and the input/output devices. Discrete circuits,
amplifiers, filters, A/D, D/A, power transistor etc.
 Digital devices: controls the system. Logic circuits, micro controller, SBC, PLC
etc
 Graphic Display: provide visual feed back to users. LEDs, Digital Displays, LCD,
CRT

Importance of Mechatronics in automation:

Operations involved in design and manufacturing of a product

Today’s customers are demanding more variety and higher levels of flexibility
in the products. Due to these demands and competition in the market,
manufacturers are thriving to launch new/modified products to survive. It is
reducing the product life as well as lead-time to manufacture a product. It is
therefore essential to automate the manufacturing and assembly operations
of a product. There are various activities involved in the product
manufacturing process. These are shown in figure 1.1.3. These activities
can be classified into two groups viz. design and manufacturing activities.
Mechatronics concurrently employs the disciplines of mechanical, electrical,
control and computer engineering at the stage of design itself. Mechanical
discipline is employed in terms of various machines and mechanisms,
where as electrical engineering as various electric prime movers viz.
AC/DC, servo motors and other systems is used. Control engineering helps
in the development of various electronics-based control systems to
enhance or replace the mechanics of the mechanical systems. Computers
are widely used to write various softwares to control the control systems;
product design and development activities; materials and manufacturing
resource planning, record keeping, market survey, and other sales related
activities.
Using computer aided design (CAD) / computer aided analysis (CAE) tools,
three-dimensional models of products can easily be developed. These
models can then be analyzed and can be simulated to study their
performances using numerical tools. These numerical tools are being
continuously updated or enriched with the real-life performances of the
similar kind of products. These exercises provide an approximate idea
about performance of the product/system to the design team at the early
stage of the product development. Based on the simulation studies, the
designs can be modified to achieve better performances. During the
conventional design- manufacturing process, the design assessment is
generally carried out after the production of first lot of the products. This
consumes a lot of time, which leads to longer (in months/years) product
development lead-time. Use of CAD–CAE tools saves significant time in
comparison with that required in the conventional sequential design
process.
CAD-CAE generated final designs are then sent to the production and
process planning section. Mechatronics based systems such as computer
aided manufacturing (CAM): automatic process planning, automatic part
programming, manufacturing resource planning, etc. uses the design data
provided by the design team. Based these inputs, various activities will then
be planned to achieve the manufacturing targets in terms of quality and
quantity with in a stipulated time frame.
Mechatronics based automated systems such as automatic inspection and
quality assurance, automatic packaging, record making, and automatic
dispatch help to expedite the entire manufacturing operation. These
systems certainly ensure a supply better quality, well packed and reliable
products in the market. Automation in the machine tools has reduced the
human
intervention in the machining operation and improved the
process efficiency and product quality. Therefore, it is
important to study the principles of mechatronics and to
learn how to apply them in the automation of a
manufacturing system.

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