Los materiales híbridos en el desarrollo de sistemas mecatrónicos

A mechatronic system is composed, among different elements, by sensors and actuators. Sensors detect physical variables of the surroundings and transform them into electrical signals; actuators generate movements or specific actions according to the applied electrical signal. The increasing complexity of the mechatronic systems requires the development of sensors and actuators whose manufacturing materials should be able to perform more than only one function (multifunctional). For the development or synthesis of bifunctional materials (two functions), two materials with different properties are usually combined. The resulting product is known as composed material or “composite”. When one of these materials is organic and the other is inorganic, the resulting system is known as hybrid material. This article describes the main morphological and structural characteristics of hybrid materials, in order to differentiate, particularize and, principally, show their contribution and applications in mechatronic systems.