The technological education and research scenario, all over the world, is turning towards a multidisciplinary one. Worldwide technical education curriculum has been a reverse structure in contrast to the traditional methodology. Thus, the present scenario is different as compared to the recent past in the sense that the engineering disciplines are now dilating instead of diverging. The primary reason being that the current technological designs are of highly complex and inter-interdisciplinary nature involving synergistic integration of many aspects of engineering knowledge base. This book covers the aspects of interdisciplinary subjects synergistica

The discipline Mechatronics is enormous in magnitude. Ideally it combines mechanical, electronics, electrical, software engineering, information systems, communication, control and artificial intelligence. Mechatronics is being taught to the engineering students at undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) levels all over the world. In foreign universities, almost all engineering disciplines have included mechatronics as a subject in their curriculum (The author has visited many foreign universities and has gone through their syllabus meticulously).

In future, the subject mechatronics is very likely to find a place in the curriculum of all engineering disciplines, just as the subject Basic Electronics did a few years back. It will be effectual if all engineering students are given the scope of learning this important subject. This book can be used as a textbook at the UG and PG levels in almost all engineering disciplines, especially, Electrical, Electronics, Mechanical and Manufacturing engineering disciplines. A wide range of researchers will be able to find many useful tips and hints from this book.

The integration of various theories, principles, techniques, methodologies and standards to cater to the pressing needs have long been emerging as new disciplines. For instance, background figures about advanced machines and their dominant functional subsystems, perception, cognition and execution can be better understood with an overview of the concept of architecture, and this is very close to the definition of mechatronic systems. Specialized opportunity at the UG and PG level should embody source of concepts and techniques, which have recently been applied in practical situation. It is true that knowledge can be acquired passively. But, students have to ripen their academic skills by actively learning from the valuable lessons. This book aims towards satisfying that requirement. The author covers the essential subject matter by explaining the meaning and significance of the key topics. Comprehensive in scope, and gentle in approach, the book will help the readers grasp the basics and understand the implementation of the concepts gradually.

In view of the above, the importance of the study of mechatronics, its emergence, definition and principles have been dealt with in Chapter 1. The broad knowledge accommodating the principle of mechatronics has been described logistically, so that the readers can grasp the essence of the topic. The scope of mechatronics is also discussed briefly.

Chapter 2 includes the mathematical tools and theories required for the mechatronic study. Besides the basic study in terms of definition and description, the insight into the usefulness and applicability of such tools and theories have been depicted and focused respectively. In particular, the significance of Fourier series, Fourier transform and Wavelet transform are elucidated. Advanced discrete-time signal processing methods such as Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT), Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) are introduced. The distinction between differential equation and difference equations from control schematic is ascertained. The chapter also deals with Laplace Transform and Z-Transform, the important mathematical tools, which are mainly used to solve system problems.

In Chapters 3 and 4 different types of fundamental components used for mechatronic system design applications have been described. These include semiconductor electronics, basics of electronic components, electrical relations, circuit elements, circuit analysis, fundamental aspects of digital techniques, digital theory such as Boolean algebra, logic functions such as AND, OR, and NOT, building blocks of digital technology such as logic gates, flip-flops, registers, counters and multiplexers.

Chapter 5 focuses on the principle of operations of various types of commonly used transducers and sensors. In particular, the chapter provides an overview of transducers, which are seen to be common in many mechatronic systems or products. The concept of intelligent sensors has also been explained at some places in the following chapters. The equipments used for the measurement of electrical and electronics parameters have also been described.

Within mechatronic systems, many signals require some amount of signal conditioning or signal processing at the intermittent point of interaction. Some of the signal conditioning functions are rectification, amplification, filtering, Analog to Digital Conversion (ADC), Digital to Analog Conversion (DAC), Isolation, multiplexing to name a few. Chapter 6 deals with these.

Chapter 7 discusses the various types of commonly used industrial actuators, such as electromechanical, pneumatic, smart material based actuators, etc. developed and implemented so far. The concept of intelligent actuators has also been explained from the mechatronic point of view in the subsequent chapters.

Mechanisms play very important role in designing mechatronic systems. Mechanisms within machine systems are realized by the use of basic building blocks, which are referred to as mechanical components. Some of the mechanical components are belts, pulleys, gears, bearing, chains and sprockets, cam and follower, ratchet and pawl, crank and pinion, and so on. Fundamental studies on such mechanical components have been presented elaborately.

Sophisticated and flexible control has continuously been changing the automation system. In the past, most industrial control systems were relay or PLC-based with nearly a one-to-one input-output ratio. To improve communication, control capabilities, implementation simplicity, efficiency, reliability and safety in the system design, microprocessor and/or microcontroller-based control implementation scenario emerged. Microprocessor and microcontroller-based control systems have become increasingly popular not only in mechatronic systems but in many other industrial applications such as process control, SCADA, home appliances, etc., because of their versatility, functionality and high integration level. Chapter 8 deals with these.

The behaviour of the engineering system is studied through modeling and analysis. This requires system identification and study of system response, transfer function and frequency response. In the sequence, role of modeling, its definition, techniques and methods have been presented lucidly. The input-output relationships of the systems are governed by the ordinary differential equations and state-space model called model equations. The resulting models shape the foundation for understanding, studying and manipulating the behaviour of the systems. In particular, system response deals with studying the behaviour of the system in which changes occur and predictions are desirable. The transient and steady state behaviour of first and second order systems are studied by applying test signals such as step, ramp and sinusoidal signals at the inputs. Control systems are characterized by their frequency response functions. Frequency response is a mean to estimate the system performance in terms of determining the bandwidth and the disturbance rejection of the system. The definition of the transfer function and its usefulness and the frequency response curve and its applicability has been described. Chapters 9, 10 and 11 deal with these topics.

Chapter 12 deals with introduction to open loop, closed loop, intelligent and feedback control scheme and diagnostics methodologies. The control principle, such as PI, PID, etc. have also been discussed in this chapter. Further, it focuses the relative merits and demerits of digital control implementations. The chapter also introduces the notion of soft-computing technology. The foundation leads to understand the underlying concepts of artificial intelligence.

Development workbench such as computer platform and software tools and systems play very important role in every aspect of system design. Mechatronic systems are to be built, designed, monitored, controlled and simulated using hardware and software tools, workbench (platforms) and techniques. The definition and description of computing workbench that includes an operating system (OS) and a useful presentation about the software engineering in terms of software methodology have been presented in Chapter 13. Hardware and software integration parameters such as modularity, scalability, extendability, flexibility, interoperability, interchangeability and open system have been introduced at appropriate points. Many application-oriented design and implementation methodologies and principles such as Object-Oriented methodology, Client-Server Architecture (CSA), Distributed Control System (DCS), etc., have been delivered so as to enable the readers to have deeper knowledge as to how the software are interfaced with the real target mechatronic platforms.

Component-based design is a new concept that is being used for the design of systems interdisciplinary in nature. It adopts ideas, methods, tools and techniques from all the disciplines involved. This concept has been introduced in Chapter 14. Validation is a process of assessment of the performance of the system. Fault Detection and Isolation (FDI) and Diagnostics and Prognostics (DAP) are the two main topics studied under validation. Chapter 14 also describes the validation methods and their implementation principle.

It can be safely claimed that this book provides the fundamental knowledge on the advanced ways of designing and controlling traditional electromechanical systems. Mechatronic systems being electromechanical in nature integrate I/O devices such as sensors and actuators and they need to be controlled flexibly by adopting advanced control methodology and techniques. The knowledge gained so far has to be implemented by integrating the software, hardware, tools, methods and techniques in the real application platforms. In Chapters 15 and 16, the available methods, tools, techniques and platforms for the realisation of the control in response to systems’ requirement are dealt with. These two chapters fill the gaps between theoretical study and practical implementation. These chapters include many examples of mechatronic systems and are the proper extensions of the Chapter 1 in terms of detail technical touch and understandings. The presentation deals with issues involved in integrating microcontrollers, advanced technology, computers, workbench and associated measurement systems for design, development, control, data acquisition, presentation, simulation, analysis and validation. Some emphasis has been given in terms of explaining the relative merits and demerits of centralized and distributed, supervisory control and data acquisition (remote monitoring and control) methods. More explanation of real-time systems, response time, throughput, events, transition, coherence, coordination, synchronisation and many control related useful parameters have been made clear.

The users of the book are requested to give feedback for further improvement of the text.

NITAIGOUR PREMCHAND MAHALIK