This site is a report on an assignment part of the course "Mechatronica"
( mechatronics ), lectured by Prof. P. Kool at VUB - Vrije Universiteit Brussel.
This course fits in the 1st grade of the master program in mechanical engineering.
Design and realization of a position control for a 4 DOF
- degrees of freedom - robot with DC motor drives.
The robot's purpose is in fact to automate accoustic measurements for research in the field
of accoustic holography. Our concern was to realize an electronic circuit that enables a
control of the position defined by the user by means of an analog voltage signal.
In this process a key role is assigned to the intelligent use of a
The word mechatronics was first coined by a senior engineer of a Japanese company;
Yaskawa, in 1969, as a combination of "mecha" of mechanisms and "tronics" of
electronics and the company was granted the trademark rights on the word in 1971.
The word soon received broad acceptance in industry and, in order to allow its free use,
Yaskawa elected to abandon its rights on the word in 1982.
The word has taken a wider meaning since then and is now widely being used as a
technical jargon to describe a philosophy in engineering technology,
more than the technology itself. For this wider concept of mechatronics, a
number of definitions has been proposed in the literature, differing in the particular
characteristics that the definition is intended to emphasize.
The most commonly used one emphasizes synergy:
Mechatronics is the synergistic integration of mechanical engineering with electronics
and intelligent computer control in the design and manufacture of products and processes.
( from: "UNESCO Chair On Mechatronics
and Mechatronics Research and Application Center" - http://mecha.ee.boun.edu.tr/ )
ABOUT
THE ASSIGNMENT
MICRO CONTROLLER.
WHAT IS MECHATRONICS?