Using mechatronics to teach mechanical design and technical communication

It is commonly accepted that hands-on experiences increase both learning and enjoyment during coursework. Mechatronics projects provide both interesting and relevant hands-on experiences for a wide range of topics including design processes, basic mechatronics concepts, technical communication, and working in a group environment. ME2110: Creative Decisions and Design at Georgia Tech integrates mechatronics and technical communication into a sophomore level mechanical design class. This paper describes the course in detail, highlighting the course goals and layout, tools provided to the students, industry involvement, and the main challenges of administering such a course.     

机电一体化技术在机械工程上的应用及发展趋势

介绍了机电一体化技术的内涵及特点，并列举了机电一体化在机床改造，纺织机械等机械工程上的一些成功应用的例子，并指出其最新发展趋势。     

Tracking control for magnetic-suspension systems with online unknown mass identification

This paper proposes a new nonlinear tracking control scheme with simultaneous unknown mass identification for magnetic suspension systems. Specifically, an amplitude-saturated adaptive control law is developed to achieve stable tracking and accurately estimate the unknown suspended mass simultaneously. The stability is assured with rigorous Lyapunov-based analysis. As far as we know, this is the first continuous control method for magnetic suspension systems with unknown levitated ball mass and actuator saturation, yielding an asymptotic result to achieve simultaneous tracking control and mass identification. Through hardware experiments, we verify the performance of the proposed method and compare it with existing methods.     

Comparison of two-level NMPC and ILC strategies for wet-clutch control

Modeling and control of clutch engagements has been recognized as a challenging problem, due to nonlinear and time-varying dynamics, switching discontinuously between two phases. Furthermore, the optimal references are not known a priori and vary with operating conditions. To address these issues a two-level control scheme is proposed, consisting of a learning algorithm at the high level, updating parameterized references to be tracked at the low level. To simplify the tracking, the controls for both phases are separated. In a first implementation, two (non)linear model predictive controllers (NMPCs) are used sequentially, while in a second implementation these are replaced by two Iterative Learning Controllers (ILCs). The performance and robustness are investigated on a test setup with wet-clutches, and it is shown that both implementations combined with suitable high level algorithms result in good engagements.     

机电一体化产品虚拟样机的建模/仿真技术

机电一体化产品的虚拟样机可以通过ADAMS、UG、Matlab/Simulink的有机结台来建造,1002R-100自行电站传动系统虚拟样机的建模与仿真表明此方法切实可行。     

浅谈计算机与机电一体化技术的整合

从理论层面分析了计算机与机电一体化技术整合的发展过程与特点,为进一步研究计算机技术引起的传统机械工业的技术革命提供参考。     

Design evolution of engineering systems using bond graphs and genetic programming

This paper presents a scheme of evolutionary design optimization, which integrates modeling with bond graphs and optimization using genetic programming for multi-domain engineering systems, particularly mechatronic systems. The performance of the developed system is studied using both experimentation and simulation. During the evolutionary optimization, in addition to the desired response error, system complexity is also taken into account. For the experimental study, the method is implemented in an industrial fish processing machine at the Industrial Automation Laboratory of the University of British Columbia, and the obtained results for suggested design modifications are studied and tested. The drawbacks of the fitness calculation methodologies that are presented in literature are identified and improved fitness functions are developed for evolutionary design in the present work. While previous work has investigated the integration of bond graphs and genetic programming for designing an engineering system, the present work specifically addresses the application of the developed method for the design improvement of an industrial machine. The proposed method is applicable particularly to existing engineering systems, first because the initial model can be tested by comparing its simulated results with the corresponding results from the actual physical system, and second because the design improvements as suggested by the evolutionary design framework, which is developed in the present work, may be implemented and tested against the behavior of the corresponding model.     

Towards dynamics of controlled multibody systems with magnetostrictive transducers

The paper addresses mechatronic issue of multibody systems comprising giant magnetostrictive material based transducers (sensors and/or actuators). Interaction between dynamics and control in multibody system with smart material based transducers makes it possible to change system properties and functionality substantially as a response to applied electric, magnetic or temperature fields. To use this interaction in an optimal way, the proper mathematical models of controlled electro-magneto-elastic multibody systems need to be developed. In the paper, a general mathematical model of multibody systems with magnetostrictive transducers is presented. The model consists of the constitutive equations of magnetoelastic behavior of transducers, standard formulae of electromagnetism for induced voltage and current in the pick-up coil due to variation of magnetic field intensity, and finally, the equations of motion of multibody system itself. The last one can be derived using one of the well-known multibody dynamics formalisms. General model has been developed in detail for linearized dynamics of magnetostrictive transducers and implemented virtually for two practically important cases of interaction of hosting multibody system with transducers, namely for systems with displacement driven transducers and for systems with force driven transducers. Physical prototype of magnetostrictive transducer and test rig (hosting multibody system) have been built and used successfully for verification of developed models.     

Modular design of mechatronic systems with function modeling

This paper develops a modularization scheme based on the functional model of a system. The modularization approach makes use of the function–behavior–state (FBS) model of the system to derive the entity relations. The design structure matrix (DSM) is automatically constructed based on the FBS model. In this way, the tedious work of filling the DSM entries based on expert knowledge is avoided. The approach makes use of k-means clustering algorithm to allow the user to try different number of clusters in a fast way. The k-means clustering is adopted for DSM based modularization by defining a proper entity representation, relation measure and objective function. Two modularization schemes are performed, one based on the immediate relations and one on the deeper behavioral relations between the components. Considering the application on the shifting system of the Delft University of Technology (DUT) Formula Student car, the latter modularization resulted in more mechatronic behavior based modules, while the former resulted in modules based on mere disciplinary and spatial closeness.