Applied Mechatronics

The objective of this book is to provide students with a solid overview of the various technologies and tools used to develop mechatronics devices. The book starts by providing a brief review of the fundamentals of circuits, analog and digital electronics, and operational amplifiers. This part represents basic practical tools to interface various circuit blocks and condition different signals. The focus then shifts to microcontroller technology, where details of all features of the Motorola 68HC11 microcontroller as brain for mechatronics are covered along with a brief overview of the Microchip microcontroller family. The book also covers sensors and electric actuators as they represent a major area of automation and instrumentation projects. The last part presents classical and intelligent control schemes with experiments and simulation using SIMULINK, MATLAB, and LabVIEW examples. Each chapter begins with clearly stated objectives and ends with perceptive questions and exercises.

The book strikes a sensible balance between theoretical treatments of subject matters and practical implementation with associated commercial components. Software and hardware interface of switches, displays, sensors, and actuators to the microcontroller is emphasized throughout the book with numerous practical design examples and problems using assembly and C codes.