Welcome to the first issue of Mechatronics
Designer.
So what exactly is Mechatronics - you ask? That's a good question!
According to Histand and Aliciatore(1):
The word mechatronics was coined in Japan in the late sixties, spread through
Europe and is growing in use in the United States.
The term mechatronics is used to denote a rapidly developing, interdisciplinary
field of engineering that deals with the design of products whose function relies
in the synergistic integration of mechanical, electrical, and electronic components
connected by a control architecture.
Well, that's the academic definition. I believe a simpler definition of mechatronics
is any intelligent electro-mechanical device which interacts with the physical
environment.
In today's world of the ubiquitous microprocessor, mechatronics includes just
about everything from 'smart' toasters to Mars rovers! As my wife puts it, mechatronic
design is the engineering discipline which attracts engineers who don't know what they
want to be when they grow up!
Well said, but also means that we mechatronics designers never leave school ... the
challenge for the mechatronics designer is keep up with all of the new technologies,
from software to hardware, sensors to CPUs, motors to op-amps and everything in
between... It is a field that is both fun and frustrating at the same time.
The Mechatronics Designer newsletter is our attempt to help fill in some of the gaps.
Of course we will cover our own our latest product development, but also
cover the industry news and events shaping our own design plans and efforts
We are a hands-on company dedicated to serving the design community. Our MechaBlox
product family is designed to help designers flatten learning curves and
get up to speed fast in different technological application areas.
Hand-in hand with those objectives, we believe that
education itself is a primary objective. So each issue will include
Fundamentally So..., a review of engineering fundamentals
for designers just beginning their careers (and us old timers who just pain forgot!).
as well real world application
Design Files for the seasoned practitioner.
We will also cover some topics that may not appear at first glance to be “mechatronic”
in nature - such as PERL-CGI programming, HTML etc... But, with the advent of the
pervasive Internet and Machine-to-Machine (M2M) programming, these topics have to be
at or at least near the top of a designer's “must at least understand” list!
Finally, we will include book reviews of tech books we actually read, and found to both
valuable and of interest to us and other mechatronics designers.
Let us know what you think. If you have any suggestions for topics or improvements,
reader's feedback is always appreciated.
Enjoy!
—
(1) An Introduction to Mechatronics and Measuring Systems,
Histand and Aliciatore, McGraw Hill, 1999.
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but big in performance. 
