ABSTRACT
Mechatronics is an interdisciplinary engineering field, which involves a synergistic integration of several areas such as mechanical engineering, electronic engineering, control engineering, and computer engineering. Similarly, the design and development of a mechatronic system will require an integrated approach to deal with the subsystems and subprocesses of a mixed system, specifically, an electromechanical system. As reiterated throughout the book, the subsystems of a mechatronic system should not be designed or developed independently without addressing the system integration, subsystem interactions and matching, and the intended operation of the overall system. Such an integrated approach will make a mechatronic design more optimal than a conventional design. In this chapter, some important issues in the design and development of a mechatronic product are highlighted. As illustrative examples, several case studies of practical mechatronic systems are provided.
