Mechatronics

Student Work / Activities - Mechatronics - Designing Intelligent Machines

	Mechatronics - Engineering discipline - integration of:- mechanical, electronic, computer software. Aim: Designing effective machines. What is Uncertainity?? - Unexpected events, either internal or external – component failure, or unpredictable change in the world in which it operates. Incomplete or unreliable information. Self – regulation - The capability of a machine to achieve and sustain desired behaviour when working within an environment which changes in time. Essential components - Sensors, decision mechanism, effectors. What is a mechatronic machine? - These are machines capable of achieving a given goal of sustaining desired behaviour under conditions of uncertainity which are caused by the occurrence of unexpected events or by incomplete, inconsistent or unreliable information available to the machine. Thus need to be intelligent.
What are higher levels of intelligence? The ability to learn from interaction with the world in which the machine operates. An ability to shape its environment with a view to achieving specific goals. A capacity for formulating its own goals. Reasoning can only occur if the machine has access to knowledge about Goals and tasks

Activity 1 There are many varied applications open to intelligent machines. Discover a possible application in one of the following areas. Decide how it meets the criteria for a mechatronic machine. Manufacturing Tunneling and underground work Architecture Civil engineering and construction work Transportation by road, rail, sea and air Fire-fighting and emergency rescue Nuclear engineering and operations Underwater operations Space missions Processing of materials and hazardous, toxic, pure, expensive or unstable

Perception - Collect, store, process and distribute information about the current state of the machine and its environment. Cognition - Evaluating information and for planning what will take place – computations Execution - Controls all actions of the machine Mechatronics The physical machines are constructed from a variety of physical components. Sensors Input/Output devices Information processing hardware and software Effectors The power plant The housing Learning and pattern recognition Artificial neural networks are used to provide learning and generate intelligent behaviour through the process of pattern recognition, so creating a knowledge base on which to build.