IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics

The 11 papers in this focused section examine smart mechatronic systems and embedded design. View full abstract»

A hybrid track-seeking fuzzy controller for an optical disk drive (ODD) is proposed in this paper. The proposed hybrid fuzzy controller (HFC) smoothes the voltage applied to the sled motor and improves the track-seeking efficiency. The HFC consists of two subsystems including an intelligent time switch and a driving force controller. Both subsystems are designed based on fuzzy logic inferences. Th... View full abstract»

A mechatronic system needs an integrated, concurrent, and system-based design approach due to the existence of interactions among its subsystems, and also the existence of interactions between the criteria involved in a realistic evaluation of a mechatronic product. This paper presents a systematic methodology for a detailed mechatronic design based on a mechatronic design quotient (MDQ). MDQ is a... View full abstract»

This paper proposes a new fuzzy control solution employing 2-DOF proportional-integral-fuzzy controllers dedicated to a class of servo systems. The controlled plants in these systems, widely used in mechatronics applications, can be characterized by second-order dynamics with integral type. The original design method suggested here starts with linear design results in terms of the extended symmetr... View full abstract»

We consider here the design aspect of a real-time scheduler for a class of embedded systems. For this purpose, we design a feedback controller for a reservation-based CPU scheduler for soft real-time systems. The execution time of soft real-time systems, such as multimedia systems, portable MP3 players, personal digital assistants, cellular phones, and embedded Web servers is highly variable. Henc... View full abstract»

This paper applies Buckingham's pi theorem to the problem of building a scaled car whose longitudinal and power-train dynamics are similar to those of a full-size high-mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicle (HMMWV). The scaled vehicle uses hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation to capture some of the scaled HMMWV dynamics physically, and simulates the remaining dynamics onboard in real time. This is... View full abstract»

Nanomechanical cantilever sensors (NMCSs) have recently emerged as an effective means for label-free chemical and biological species detection. They operate through the adsorption of species on the functionalized surface of mechanical cantilevers. Through this functionalization, molecular recognition is directly transduced into a micromechanical response. In order to effectively utilize these sens... View full abstract»

This paper presents the self-calibration of a novel biologically inspired 7 DOF cable-driven robotic arm. Similar to the human arm, the proposed robotic arm consists of three sequentially connected modules, i.e., a 3 DOF shoulder module, a 1 DOF elbow module, and a 3 DOF wrist module. Due to factors like manufacturing defects, assembly misalignments, compliance, and wear of connecting mechanisms, ... View full abstract»

The main problem of atomic force microscopy (AFM)-based nanomanipulation is the lack of real-time visual feedback. Although this problem has been partially solved by virtual reality technology, the faulty display caused by random drift and modeling errors in the virtual reality interface are still limiting the efficiency of the AFM-based nanomanipulation. Random drift aroused from an uncontrolled ... View full abstract»

Mating a pair of electric connectors is one of the most important steps in a robotic wiring harness assembly system. A class of piecewise linear force models is proposed to describe both the successful and the faulty mating processes of connectors via an elaborate analysis of forces during different phases. The corresponding parameter estimation method of this model is also presented by adapting r... View full abstract»

In this paper, we present the development of a tire rubber deformation sensing system that provides the critical information for understanding and estimation of wheel/ground interactions for mobile robots and vehicles. Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF)-based sensors are designed and fabricated to embed on the inner tread surface to measure the tire rubber tread deformation. Analytical models of the P... View full abstract»

This paper presents the application of self-sensing actuation (SSA) to facilitate the implementation of piezoelectric actuator in an intelligent mechatronic system. SSA is a technique to employ smart materials, such as piezoelectric materials, simultaneously as a sensor and an actuator; thereby increasing the level of integration of the system. The piezoelectric actuator is equipped with an exclus... View full abstract»

This paper presents the design and construction of an inverse controller for the compensation of hysteretic actuator characteristics. The approach is based on the so-called modified Prandtl-Ishlinskii method. The field-programmable-gate-array-based hardware solution allows hysteresis-free actuator operation at signal frequencies up to 1 kHz. Finally, the effect of hysteresis compensation is presen... View full abstract»

Wound roll electroactive polymer actuators fabricated with dielectric elastomer (DE) materials provide high bandwidth actuation for robots, minipumps, loudspeakers, valves, and prosthetic devices. In this paper, we develop a DE wound roll actuator fabrication process that produces high strain (12%), reliable (3480 cycles at maximum strain), and stiff (144 N/m) actuators. An axisymmetric Unite elem... View full abstract»

Soft computing techniques are generally well suited for vehicular control systems that are usually modeled by highly nonlinear differential equations and working in unstructured environments. To demonstrate their applicability in real-world applications, two intelligent controllers based on fuzzy logic and artificial neural network are designed for performing a wall-following task. Based on perfor... View full abstract»

Compliant mechanisms and voice coil motors can be used in haptic device designs to eliminate bearings and achieve smooth friction-free motion. The accompanying return-to-center behavior can be compensated using feedforward control if a suitable multidimensional stiffness model is available. In this paper we introduce a method for automatic self-characterization and compensation, and apply it to a ... View full abstract»

Positioning precision is crucial to today's increasingly high-speed, high-capacity, high-data-density, and miniaturized hard disk drives (HDDs). The demand for higher bandwidth servo systems that can quickly and precisely position the read/write head on a high track density becomes more pressing. The idea of applying dual-stage actuators to track servo systems has been studied. However, the curren... View full abstract»