Page 14 - Mechatronic Components Roadmap to Design

Mechatronics: A Brief History Chapter 1 3

needed no soldering, could be powered by a USB port, programmed by a USB
port (not needing to transfer the microcontroller to the programmer and back to
the board), and provide terminal to see the inputs and outputs in real time. Ardu-
ino was the first commercially successful project and others have followed. The
programming cards now come with different computing power, size, and input/
output ports for different purposes. Sensor boards, different types of motor
drivers, and all kinds of boards followed this trend.
It is naturally more expensive to use off-the-shelf electronics, but for edu-
cational and prototyping purposes use of these electronics cuts the time
drastically.
6. Cost Drop of Electronics and Manufacturing: Around 15 years ago, iner-
tial measurement unit (IMU) sensor from Honeywell was priced around 1000$.
Nowadays, price of an IMU sensor from Sparkfun already on the board using
I2C protocol ranges from 10 to 35$. It is also very easy to use online 3D printing
companies or university services to build parts by using 3D printing technology
where a gram of printed material cost 0.03$, and for an hour of printing the cost
is 5$. The drop in the cost of electronics and 3D manufacturing is allowing more
people to work on mechatronic projects.
When we consider a mechatronic system, it consists of mechanical, electri-
cal, and software subsystems. This division in fact also shows itself in the lit-
erature. If the author of the book has a mechanical or electrical background, the
book is also written from that perspective. This is the unique purpose of this
book because people from different background do not have enough informa-
tion to understand where to start to solve their problems in mechatronics.
Consider a mechanical engineer who needs to design a transmission system.
There are many choices, such as gears, belts, chains, and shafts. In mechanical
engineering education these concepts are taught in detail. However, if an engi-
neer with an electrical engineering background is working on a transmission
system, it is very time consuming even to realize the difference between differ-
ent choices.
This book does not intend to teach the user different components of the
mechatronics systems, rather it is a guidebook for the users to understand the
advantages and disadvantages of different components.
This book consists of 16 other chapters. Chapter 2 describes the use of this
book. Chapters 3–15 show with block diagrams different components and their
usages and their kinds. These components are grouped as follows:
Chapter 3. Calculations of Mechanical Properties
Chapter 4. Mechanical Failure Modes
Chapter 5. Materials Properties
Chapter 6. Manufacturing Processes
Chapter 7. Machine Elements
Chapter 8. Design and Analysis Programs
Chapter 9. Assembly Processes
Chapter 10. Electronic Components