(Graphic: Professor K. Craig, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, MIT)
CHICAGO (Jan. 10, 2006) - Consumers spend much of their time within their automobiles, and their demand for better performance, applications and personalization is propelling ongoing innovation for every aspect of the vehicle. Applications that were merely dreams just a few years ago are in cars today, with next generation products on design tables, or in the development pipeline now.
Component advances from the merging of mechanical and electrical universes have produced hybrid and hydrogen technologies, complex fuel injection and other vehicle systems. Telematics - sensing devices and controllers for safety, performance, communication and other functions - is bearing new advances seemingly every day. Improvements in functional ability in vehicle infotainment components and systems, such as navigation and audio-visual entertainment, have resulted from computer miniaturization, design, makeup and memory advances.
At the heart of this boom in vehicle design and functionality is "mechatronics." Short and sweet, mechatronics can be defined as the intersection of mechanics, electronics, computers and controls. The synergistic use of aspects of each of these fields in designing products and processes is driving advances in automobiles - the actual cars and components, as well as the equipment needed to build, diagnose and service them. It also is a change agent for aftermarket suppliers of parts, entertainment systems, communications and even services that consumers demand. Furthermore, it is changing the scope of knowledge and applications technicians are using and will use in the future.
Evolution to revolution Mechatronics is nothing new-. Like computers, the Internet or even hybrid motors, it has been around for years, creeping more and more into vehicle design and applied technologies. According to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the term was coined 35 years ago by Japan's Yaskawa Electric Co. where it was first used in terms of the computer control of electric motors to make a mechanical device smarter. It has evolved into applying the latest techniques in four fields together where possible to improve function, control and flexibility.Mechatronics is more than a word, however. It is an evolution. It became and remains a significant design trend that has impacted the nature of both the product-development process and technological change, both in effect as well as pace. Yet mechatronics was slow to gain industrial and academic acceptance as a field of study and practice in Europe and the United States. This has begun to change in recent years, as evidenced by the growing number of university undergraduate and post-grad mechatronics courses offered. It has yet to be universally adopted as a field in engineering.
Mechatronics in the 1970s was simple and focused almost exclusively on servo-technology, such as automotive door openers. With the advent of information technology (IT) in the 1980s, microprocessors embedded into mechanical systems led to size and efficiency gains, with the birth of anti-lock brakes and electronic engine controls.
Strides in connectivity, miniaturization and networking in communication technology during the 1990s led to the development of micro-electro-mechanical devices such as sensors and actuators - technology that enabled the on-impact triggering of airbags, and thereafter, the evolution of more sophisticated sensors. Since 2000, processor speeds and advancements building memory capacity predicated the boom in in-car navigation systems and other audio-visual consumer electronic products, as well as passive and active safety systems and more.
Moving forward Employing more memory in less space is one of the cutting-edge battlegrounds faced by automakers and suppliers when making decisions today about what will be in tomorrow's vehicles. For example, one key decision yet to be made is whether hard drive disk memory (which enables integration of independent vehicle subsystems) or flash-based memory (which can keep critical vehicle operating systems separate from non-critical systems like infotainment) will be employed, or both. Likewise, where and when to use them are other factors to be weighed.Modern mechatronics can be applied to make mechanisms smarter, via improved efficiencies, speed, control and system interaction. Consider noise and vibration, which in the past have been chronic sources of inefficiencies in the automotive industry. Today and in the future, using sensors to monitor the noise and vibrations levels, components also can incorporate adaptive actuators to counteract those levels, effectively enabling behavior to be an integral and useful function.
Another trend is the increasing role that nanotechnology - the incorporation of living and non-living molecules into processes and products - has begun to play, given their value in improving strength, appearance, durability, ability to be recycled and other functions. Some even suggest that nanotechnology merits its own field, and that the four influences be expanded to include nanotechnology.
Education within the industry will have to change with the times: Rather than treat the areas of mechanics, electronics, computers, etc., as separate and distinct, training will have to embrace a more interdisciplinary approach. This marks a shift in focus from how to build and fix to how to use. Only a handful of U.S. universities offer degreed programs, usually within engineering departments - North Carolina, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Virginia Tech, MIT, Stanford, Illinois and Purdue. But education has to go beyond those who design and implement mechatronics devices; it needs to also reach the trenches, where those who service and repair vehicles keep America rolling.
Perhaps a look at what automakers are doing might shed some light here. Ford Motor Co., in focusing on hybrid technology - a modern-day example of mechatronics in action - is sharing in the hunt for qualified engineers and others skilled in design and development of such vehicles.
The company has found that these folks are scarce, given the high demand from other automakers, let alone other industries. The company recently announced it needs to add 250 engineers alone by March 2006 to its hybrid team.
"It's difficult to find people with the required skills because we at Ford have very high standards and prefer to hire engineers with significant experience," said Scott Staley, chief engineer, Ford Hybrid and Fuel Cell Technology Development.
"Mechatronics goes beyond the basic hybrid powertrain components, like the electric motor," said Tom Watson, manager, Ford Hybrid Electric Vehicle Powertrain Engineering. "For example, the Escape Hybrid has drive-by-wire (electronic) technology for such systems as steering, braking and shifting."
"Right now, this area of the auto industry is really heating up because most all major automakers want to have a presence in the hybrid vehicle segments," added Staley. "Engineers are interested because I think they see hybrid technology ready for prime time and they want to be part of it."
Paradigm shift in the aftermarket With the evolution, integration and manifestation of so many fields into automobiles, the nature of the aftermarket service industry faces a dramatic change. The evolution described above has shown itself in a subtle manner, yet it reveals the underlying current of mechatronics. Where we once had mechanics, we now have technicians. Soon, we may well have mechantronics specialists.Survival in the aftermarket will require a balanced mechatronics background. The cars we will see going forward will be more mechatronic in nature. To service and repair them, the aftermarket will need to keep pace. In a vehicle design environment where the vocabulary and concepts are becoming increasingly complex, so too will the information, tools and the capabilities needed to service and repair vehicles. Aftermarket service professionals may well need to learn to speak a new language to stay one step ahead, rather than be one step behind the engineers.
(Sources: Ford, ASME, MIT)
