Physical Implementations
For most mechatronic systems, the main issue is no longer how to implement a control system, but how to implement actuators and what is the energy source. Within the mechatronic field, mainly two technologies are used to produce the movement: the piezo-electric actuators and motors, or the electromagnetic actuators and motors. Maybe the most famous mechatronics systems are the well known camera autofocus system or camera anti-shake systems.
Concerning the energy sources, most of the applications use batteries. But a new trend is arriving and is the energy harvesting, allowing transforming into electricity mechanical energy from shock, vibration, or thermal energy from thermal variation, and so on.
Read more about this topic: Mechatronics
Famous quotes containing the word physical:
“A more problematic example is the parallel between the increasingly abstract and insubstantial picture of the physical universe which modern physics has given us and the popularity of abstract and non-representational forms of art and poetry. In each case the representation of reality is increasingly removed from the picture which is immediately presented to us by our senses.”
—Harvey Brooks (b. 1915)