I like the term!

Why? It has a nice ring to it and encompasses many of the real world thing we meet every day...

Inkjet printer

Central locking on your car.

Auto focus on digital camera.

CD drive...HDD

KrisDel^TM Raster Scan Toaster.

Del

Maybe I'm a snob Del, but I think for the average layman asking what I do.... he will hear mechatronics and immediately think I'm a mechanic !!!

I much prefer the term 'a design engineer' that covers just about every engineering field I reckon!!

John.

Hold on!

What's a 'KrisDel raster scan toaster' then??

John.

You've never heard of the KrisDel solar powered raster scan toaster...(SPRST)????

Coupled to Bill's solar tea maker it makes the ideal Christmas present, except, here in the UK the sun will be too low at Christmas .

The SPRST is still in development, but I'm sure you can work out what it does from the name.

It is one of KrisDel's many 'virtual products' . (fear not you may get co-opted onto the design (or taste testing) team...serious business toast! I do like muffin too)

Del

I have a definition of mechatronics which is in fact not the general. The reason this field developed is simply because mechanics alone were not any more able to respond to the requirements but the devices you use under the term "mechatronics" are basically all of them mechanical devices as every object you use in your world but the "soft"! Even a transistor will not perform correctly if the basic lows of mechanics are not taken care of.

The problem is that unfortunately mechanical engineers were not trained in control and measurements as much as engineers coming from electrotechnical directions.

Mechatronics is a pluridisciplinar activity based on the integration of technologies as mechanics (the base!), electronics, measurement and data processing for control.

Can you imagine an actuator without any mechanical part ? Even an electromagnetic one needs mechanical parts!

Most of mechatronicians come from the electronics field. I am, may be, an exception because I come from the mechanical engineering and moved with the evolution of technology toward complex systems making use of all possibilities offered by the marriage of different techniques.

An actuator without mechanical parts... what about carbon nano tubes as actuators!?

Raph

The nanotube is a mechanical component!

How about rocket scientist.

EDN site is down at present, so can't read their argument.

My feeling, tho', is that it's a bit too much of a fancy word - I'd never tell a bloke in the pub that I was into Mechatronics.

Maybe if the media grab it & run with it, it'll be accepted in a couple of years.

(CR4 spellcheck certainly doesn't know it!)

I pray it's a fad that will leave quietly.

It's just too corny to be cool.

Mechatronics is a copyrighted name of a company in France that produces PLCs and other industrial computing gear.

Hi,

mechatronics is a fancy word that is used to raise research funds from noninformed political decision makers.

If taken seriously it should read optomechatronics or in micro-tech MOEMS.

In reality the name emerged in the late 70ies.

But the reality of mechatronic emerged earlyer, the first examples that I know are from gyrocompassing back 1908 to 1914 (Anschuetz and Sperry).

Anschuetz invented the gyrocompass and Sperry was on a visit to him and asked for a license which Anschuetz refused so Sperry invented his own system.

Look for uspto.gov or depatisnet for the old patent applications.

There was highest quality mechanics including premium ball bearings, there have been driving motors at 333 and 400Hz, there have been electromagnetic pickoffs and torquers and very early amplifyers, there have been synchros (transmitting and receiving) for transmitting the ships course to the bridge.

So this would be considered today as mechatronics: mixture of mechanical and electrical and electronic subsystems to a total system (including computing).

Today this is a bit in miscredit by military misuse : the DARPA founded driverless car is used to raise a lot of money in civil research including the automobile industry. They don't know what they are talking about, playing for adults is the best, but wasting money is never a good idea, there are many better necessities.

RHABE

Whatever you said, but the name was copyrighted by a French company for at least more than 30 years.

Well surely if its a trade name and copyrighted, it just can't be used as a general word then - or can it?

I suppose 'Hoover' or 'fridge' must infringe the copyrights of Hoover corp and Fridgedaire corp when they are used generically?

John.

...presumably you can say or use these words...you just can't use them as a name for your product?... It's KrisDel clear to me...

From what I've seen, this term is a compilation of "mechanical" and "electronic" to describe systems that include some of both (such as robotic devices). Not a far cry from the term "pneudraulic" used to describe systems having both compressed gas (pneumatic) and compressed liquid (hydraulic). At least one can see the referent terms within the word, which is likely better than a wholly made-up word would be. F'rinstance, instead of having a "mechatronic" device, one might instead have a "gorberlingic" device. Then we'd all have to learn a new word instead of de-splicing a couple of familiar old friends...

"gorberlingic"

But I like it!

"Gorberlingic! You did WHAT!!!"

"What the gorberlingic are you on about?!!"

Hmmmmm has a nice ring to it methinks!!

John.

I reckon it's probably illegal in some states.

Not in Arkansas, unless it's with a cousin. Or is that legal WITH a cousin? I get so cornfused.....

Okay! so what you are saying is that its ok to 'bastardise' the English language to create terms which mean a compilation of other engineering fields...

So Mechatronics = mechanics and Electronics plus maybe a bit of computing.

Pneudraulic = pneumatics plus hydraulics.

So what about all the other combinations?

electronics and pneumatics = pneutronics?

Mechanics and pneumatics = pneumanics?

I mean where does this making up of names stop??

John.

I doubt it ever DOES stop - English is an evolving tongue (praise be!), not a dead language. Besides, Lewis Carroll gave us the definition of the process - these are "portmanteau words". "'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves did gyre and gymbal in the waybe..." And look at modern German - all of the technical terms are made up of words stuck together, like Festschmierstoff-Zusatz (solid lubricant additive). Graphite grease works as well, but hasn't the Teutonic flavor...

where does this making up of names stop??

At the end of the alphabet?

Zoochanics!

I saw they made a prosthetic tail for a dolphin the other day!

Does 'zytophobic' count?

No body is bastardizing anything!!! It's a friggin' French word. It's the name of a friggin' French company - Has bee for a long time!!! "Hello? Mc Fly?!"

Don't hold back. Tell us how you really feel.

Ooooooh..... like the entire English language (and most) is not the bastardizaton of many other languages. Please lets not do that!

Seriously. This offends you on some level?

Anything that makes unnecessarily confusing words that make an engineer even less well respected in laymen's eyes does offend me.

Its taken a long time to educate people into realising that a car mechanic or a TV repair guy is not an engineer, now with this expansion of these terms pneudraulic etc... there are ging to be so many contradicting terms for people to misunderstand.

Going back to my original point mechatronics is similar to mechanic to an average layperson, its a step backwards for engineering, in my opinion.

Whether its a company's name or not is besides the issue.

John.

On those grounds, I concur - eschew obfuscation!

A 'Mechano' set with all the goodies added?