Key elements and Domains of Mechatronics System


Key elements and Domains of Mechatronics System:
A typical mechatronic system consists of a mechanical systems, electronics/electrical systems, and information technology (computer engineering and control engineering). The different domains of a mechatronics system are as shown below: 
Domains of mechatronics system

 The key elements of mechatronic systems consist of: 
  1. Information/Computer systems
  2. Mechanical systems
  3. Electrical systems
  4. Real-time interfacing
Key elements of a typical mechatronics system

  • Information/ computer systems: The information/ computer elements refer to hardware/software utilized to perform computer-aided dynamic system analysis, optimization, design, and simulation, virtual instrumentation, rapid control prototyping, hardware in the loop simulation, PC-based data acquisition and control, and testing.
  • Mechanical systems: The sensors and actuators form the mechanical systems. The actuators produce the motion or cause some action whereas sensors detect the state of the system parameters, inputs, and outputs. The sensors can be used to measure a variety of physical quantities such as temperature, humidity, level, position, displacement, switches, etc.. The actuators can range from devices such as solenoids, motors, indicators, etc.. For more information, click here. 
  • Electrical/Electronics systems: The input signal conditioning & interface and digital control architecture form the electrical/ electronics system.  The input signal conditioning and interface systems provide connections between the control circuits and input/output (I/O) devices and can range from electronics circuits, filters, amplifiers, analog to digital converters (ADC), digital to analog converters (DAC), etc... The overall control of the system is carried out by digital control. The digital control architecture implements a control algorithm, which uses sensor measurements, to compute control actions to be applied by the actuator. The digital control architecture can consist of simple logic circuits or controllers such as microprocessors, microcontrollers, PLCs, etc.. 
  • Real-time interfacing systems: The control to be implemented on actuators in real-time is carried on the mechanical system by actuators. A graphical display of devices provides visual feedback to the users and may have devices such as LCD, LED, or graphics display.

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