Page 13 - Mechatronic Components Roadmap to Design

2 Mechatronic Components

motor supplier, data sheet of a sensor, or some theoretical knowledge. Before
the ease of internet access main source of knowledge were books. Considering
that it takes at least 3–4 years for a book to start as an idea and finds itself a space
on a bookshelf, the information received from a book is actually old knowledge
in today’s world. It is much easier to update information on websites and users
can learn much faster.
2. Open Source Communities: Use of knowledge and sharing of the knowl-
edge led people to form open source communities where people put their project
information and even codes on the internet. When another person picks up the
project and develops the codes the result can be impressive. RepRap Commu-
nity worked together and filament-based three-dimensional (3D) printing tech-
nology has been developed. With the same intentions, Arduino Project was
made public and all kinds of Arduino compatible electronic parts are developed.
3. Ease of Manufacturing: Manufacturing of the parts is getting easier. The
computer-aided drawing programs were very expensive and very difficult to
learn. Nowadays, you can download freeware drawing programs and even some
of these programs are working online making it easier for the user by not need-
ing a high computing power computer. Since people can draw the part they want
easily, there are also online manufacturing companies where one can order a
part to be manufactured by computer numerical control (CNC) laser cutting
or CNC milling.
Especially the growth of 3D printing machine market and a desktop 3D
printer getting cheaper makes prototyping of the machines much easier. More-
over, the availability of online 3D printing services makes even non-engineers
able to design and build their ideas.
4. Maker Spaces: The necessity of hands-on experience in the engineering
education is even more important as the competitions between the companies
are increasing and for any start-up to be successful, they should be able to show
their prototype. In order to let the engineering students to have hands-on expe-
rience, understand the theoretical part of the courses they learn, and learn to
work in a team, different universities have Maker Spaces where the student
can build their projects. This building and do it yourself culture are growing
and closing the gaps between the engineering fields, especially when a machine
is being built mechanical, electrical, and computer engineering students work
collaboratively and understand the importance of mechatronics. In their profes-
sional life, they have also very big tendency to work together with the engineers
from other disciplines.
5. Off-the-shelf Electronics: Embedded systems are very important part of
mechatronic systems, where the software is put to run the system. The micro-
controllers have been around, a user can buy the microcontroller but has to
develop the board himself/herself. This process was very time consuming
and since the board was not done professionally it was susceptible to mistakes.
Off-the-shelf electronics overcame this problem and provided the users with
ready-to-go programming board. It was revolutionary to have a board which