Information processing for mechatronic systems

The integration of mechanical systems and microelectronics opens many new possibilities for process design and automatic functions. After discussing the mutual interrelations between mechanical and electronic design the different ways of integration within mechatronic systems and the resulting properties are described. The information processing can be organized in multi-levels, ranging from low-level control, through supervision to general process management. In connection with knowledge bases and inference mechanisms intelligent control systems result. The design of control systems for mechanical systems is described, from modeling, identification to adaptive control for nonlinear systems. This is followed by solving supervision tasks with fault diagnosis. Then design tools for mechatronic systems are considered and examples of applications are given, like intelligent control of an electromechanical throttle actuator and force and torque reconstruction for a robot