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Mechatronics...Say What?
Bob Weinstein is a journalist who covers technology, project management, the workplace and career development.
Don’t be embarrassed if you’ve never heard the word “mechatronics.” Believe it or not, it’s not another newly minted tech field.
The term was coined in Japan in the mid-1960s, but it has only recently come into its own as an important career discipline. A decade ago, futurist David Smith forecast mechatronics’ emergence as an exciting and important engineering specialty. Smith is a senior vice president of Technology Futures, an IT consulting company in Austin, Texas.
Simply put, mechatronics combines mechanical and electrical engineering. “Actually, it embraces a whole range of jobs because it applies the newest techniques in precision mechanical engineering, controls theory, computer science and electronics to the design process to create better products,” Smith explains.
According to information Web site Wikipedia, mechatronics embraces system modeling, mechanics, electronics, sensors, electro-mechanics, CAD/CAM, simulation, software, digital control and microcontrollers.
“Mechatronics is really nothing but good design practice,” says Masayoshi Tomizuka, professor of mechanical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley.
Many engineers insist that mechatronics grew out of robotics, says Smith. Early robotic arms, for example, were unable to coordinate their …
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