Building advanced mechatronic systems

Abstract

Mechatronics is the engineering discipline concerned with the construction of systems incorporating mechanical, electronical and information technology components. The word mechatronics as a blend of mechanics and electronics has already been invented 40 years ago by a Japanese company. Then, mechatronics just meant complementing mechanical parts with some electronical units, a typical example being a photo camera. Today, mechatronics is an area combining a large number of advanced techniques from engineering, in particular sensor and actuator technology, with computer science methods.