Mechatronic systems-a challenge for control engineering

The synergetic integration of mechanical processes, micro-electronics and information processing opens new possibilities as well to the design of processes as for its automatic control. The solution of tasks within mechatronic systems is performed on the process side and the digital-electronic side. As the interrelations during the design play an import role simultaneous engineering from the very beginning has to take place. Mechatronic systems are developed for mechanical elements, machines, vehicles and precision mechanic devices. The integration of mechatronic systems can be performed by the components (hardware-integration) and by information processing (software-integration). The information processing consists of low-level and high-level feedback control, supervision and diagnosis and general process management. Special signal processing, model based and adaptive methods are applied. With the aid of a knowledge base and inference mechanisms, mechatronic systems with increasing intelligence will be developed. The main goals are to increase systems performance, reliability and economy, and production costs. Some examples for the development of mechatronic systems are given, such as smart actuators, adaptive suspensions, electrical brakes, adaptive cruising control of cars, and hardware-in-the-loop simulation of combustion engines. Experimental results are shown, and the improvements by the mechatronic approaches are pointed out.