Question

State the elements that are common to all mechatronic systems and state their purpose.

Answer 1

Common elements in all mechatronic system-

(1) MECHANICAL SYSTEM- These are mechanical structures , kinematic mechanisms which can be of thermo-fluid or/and hydraulics aspects of a mechatronics system.It may include static as well as dynamic charecteristics and interacts with the environment and the surrounding on purpose. The mechanical elements of a mechatronic system require physical power to produce motion, force, acceleration, and heat etc.

(2) ELECTRO-MECHANICAL- these are sensors and actuators of a mechatronic system.Many physical attributes can be measured by using sensors for e.g. light can be measured using photo-resistor/ displacement using potentiometer, direction/tilt using magnetic sensor, sound can be measured using microphone, pressure and stress using strain gauge and temperature using thermistor. Actuators such as DC servomotors. Light emitting diode, stepper motor, relay, solenoid , speaker, and electromagnets etc can be used to execute a commanded action.

(3) ELCTRONIC/ELECTRICAL - electrical components refer to resistor, capacitor, inductor, transformer, circuit, and analog signals. Electronic components refer to analog analog/digital electronics, transistors, thyristors, opto-isolators, operational amplifiers, power electronics, and signal conditioning . these electrical and electronics are used to connect electro-mechanical sensors and actuators to control interface hardware components.

(4) COMPUTING AND CONTROL HARDWARE- it consists of computing hardware elements such as analog-to-digital(A2D) converter, digital-to-analog (D2A) converter, digital input/output counters, timers, microprocessor, microcontroller, data acquisition and control (DAC) board, and digital signal processing (DSP) board. The control interface hardware allows analog/ digital interfacing that is communication of sensor signal to the control computer and communication of control signal from the control computer to the actuator.

(5)COMPUTER- consists of hardware and software utilized to perform computer-aided dynamic system analysis, for optomization, design, and simulation, virtual instrumentation, rapid control prototyping and PC based data acquisition and control.