Mechatronic control system design

The authors discuss a mechatronic solution to the design of a control system for a wire frame assembly machine. An existing machine, controlled by purely mechanical cams, links, and levers, and has been redesigned. The new control system, using the concept of software gearboxes, coordinates the action of discrete servo drives. The new production facility incorporates inline inspection of all process parameters, fault diagnostics, audit trail ability, and a user-friendly man-machine interface. The main benefits of the mechatronic approach are significantly reduced set-up times, flexible manufacturing capability, reduced downtime due to failures, improved product quality, reduced time between design and production, and higher production rates. >