by Steve Meyer, Contributing Editor One company is leveraging CAD, vision systems and robotics to make dramatic improvements in grinding large castings. The next generation of grinding will…
Are we there yet?
Industry 4.0 is a marketing campaign to create a perception of value in something that doesn’t exist yet. On one hand, the emergence of lower cost, intelligent peripherals…
Mobile robotics present new ethics questions
The world of mechatronics has an unlikely hero. A bomb disposal robot became the delivery system for 1 pound of C4 explosive which killed the sniper in Dallas…
Is Driver-less Driving the Answer?
Tesla Motors had it first fatality. The response from Tesla included a very odd statistic. The company estimates that there were 130,000,000 miles driven last year in Tesla…
The Future of Control
There are three major trends that will shape the coming generation of control technology. These trends are largely independent and not likely to go away. They are increasing…
Manufacturing USA
The Department of Commerce produces information on about the US economy every five years. In an economy estimated at $28.7 trillion, the largest segment was Manufacturing at $5.8 trillion….
The State of the Art in Wind Power
Wind turbines are complex systems that convert the low speed, low kinetic energy of wind into electricity. The current state of the art involves using very large propellers…
Insights from 1400 Year Old Windmills
Windmills have figured prominently in mankind’s ability to prosper on planet earth. The windmill gets its name from using wind power to grind (mill) grain for food. One…
The Obvious isn’t always…
Engineering of complex systems can sometimes be represented as a series of simplified approximations based on the performance of known subsystems. In the case of wind turbines, there…
Pumps
Processing water after it has been used into potable water is a complex mix of chemical, mechanical and electrical engineering disciplines. The mechanical problems to be solved include…
Water Crisis
Water, somewhat like matter and energy, is not really created or destroyed. Water is mostly captured, used and recycled. The exception to this is electrolysis of water in…
Mechanics, Load and Gearing
A thorough understanding of the mechanical load is crucial to successful motion applications. Gear designers are experts in understanding the mechanical load. Not just the RMS power requirement, but…
Position or not Position?
In the last post there was some discussion of how positioning is accomplished from a general perspective. As with all things in the world of mechatronics there are…
Understanding the Notion of Positioning
One of the most difficult challenges to machine builders is understanding the notion of positioning and how it is reflected in component selection in their equipment design. Positioning…
Drone Wars
Research into unmanned aircraft has been going on for some time. Called UAVs for Unmanned Airborne Vehicles, systems of various types have been under development since the 1908’s….
Motor Changes
Electric motors are the workhorse of industry. Globally 20% of all energy generated is in the form of electricity. Electric motors consume 40% of all electricity. Electric…
Mechanics and Motion
Engineers with a mechanical engineering background typically have the best grasp of motion control. This should not be a surprise to anyone. Motion control is the science, sometimes…
Managing Complexity
Engineers and designers frequently seek simplicity as a measure of excellence in products and machine designs. Simplicity has many virtues. Simplicity often means high reliability. Simplicity can translate to long…
Control System Language
Programming control systems is a complex matter. Some of the complexity is the history behind it, some is hardware related and some is the interdependency of hardware and…
Consumer Electric Car
The competition to bring a mass produced electric car to the market is really heating up. There is an underlying assumption that, like flat screen TVs, this thing…
The Belt and Pulley
Sometimes the old tricks work the best. The Belt and Pulley solution for mechanical power transmission has been around for a couple of centuries, and despite all the…
Heroes or Not
Heroes are people who takes risks. People who struggle against great forces. Sometimes they are People who have a big impact on society in their generation. Sometimes they…
Heroes of Industry
We all have our heroes. The people who epitomize an ethic, embody success, and who we look up to. Film heroes, music heroes, sports heroes, even Heroes of…
Mobility, Human and Robotic
The notion of mobility is complex. As human beings we are mobile by design. We are autonomously mobile, we move by our intent. As human beings we also…
The Next Age of Robots
If you were a teenager in 1977 and went to see Star Wars the first vision of C3PO and R2D2 would have made quite an impact. In the…