Control Engineering Practice 10 (2002) 877–886

Mechatronics: from the 20th to 21st century

Masayoshi Tomizuka*
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Received 26 January 2001

Abstract

This paper presents a Year-2000 (Y2K) status report of mechatronics. The Y2K definition of mechatronics is ‘‘the
synergetic integration of physical systems with information technology and complex-decision making in the design, manu-
facture and operation of industrial products and processes.’’ Mechatronics may be interpreted as the best practice for synthesis
of engineering systems, and it covers a broad area and scope. Vehicle lateral control for automated highway systems,
hard disk drives and media handling mechanisms for printing engines are reviewed as examples of mechatronics research.
Engineering students should be exposed to mechatronics and to the culture of working in teams. r 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All
rights reserved.

Keywords: Mechatronics; Modeling; Control; Mechanical systems; Vehicles

1. Introduction complex-decision making includes methodologies such

The term mechatronics, introduced in the late 1960s
by Japan’s Yaskawa Electric Company, was derived
from the observation of the synergy achieved through
the integration of mechanical and electronic technolo-
gies (Harashima, Tomizuka, & Fukuda, 1996; Kyura &
Oho, 1996). Yaskawa subsequently released trademark
rights to the name and it has been used since in
education and industry to describe systems derived from
this heritage. Today, that heritage includes a broad
variety of physical systems operating under computer
and electronic control. The definition of mechatronics
has evolved over the past three decades (Auslander,
1996). A Y2K definition of mechatronics may be ‘‘The
synergetic integration of physical systems with informa-
tion technology (IT) and complex-decision making in the
design, manufacture and operation of industrial pro-
ducts and processes.’’ This definition emphasizes that IT
will play an increasingly significant role in mechatronics.
IT in the mechatronics context includes computers and
digital signal processors (DSPs), which store and process
information, communications and the Internet, which
transmit information, as well as various computer-aided
design (CAD) software packages. On the other hand,
*Fax: 1-510-643-5599.
E-mail address: tomizuka@me.berkeley.edu (M. Tomizuka).
as feedback design theory, control theory, intelligent
control, hybrid system theory and fault detection. Both
the technological basis for IT and the knowledge basis
for decision making have significantly broadened over
the last three decades, which has also enlarged the
application domain of mechatronics. This is an evolu-
tionary aspect of mechatronics, and is illustrated in
Fig. 1. In particular, advances in communications such
as the Internet and wireless communication have
enlarged the range of mechatronic components from
unit devices to large-scale distributed systems. Notice
that we have used ‘‘physical systems’’ in the definition in
place of ‘‘mechanical systems’’ to reflect this point.
Mechatronics may sound like an interdisciplinary
area, but that classification is not right. We are
surrounded by mechatronic products: e.g. camcorders,
computer hard disk drives (HDDs), paper copiers,
cruise control systems, etc. Mechatronics, however,
does not refer only to products; it is much broader than
that. This point has been made clear in the Y2K
definition, which may also be interpreted as the ‘‘best
practice’’ for synthesis by mechanical engineers and
those in other engineering disciplines. In fact, a major
driver of mechatronics comes from the needs of the
industry. At a recent workshop on control education
and research sponsored by the National Science
Foundation, one industrial leader summarized general

0967-0661/02/$ - see front matter r 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 9 6 7 - 0 6 6 1 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 0 1 6 - 3
878 M. Tomizuka / Control Engineering Practice 10 (2002) 877–886

Discrete Event Theory

Hybrid Systems Theory
7. environmental engineering,
Fault Detection Decision Making
8. manufacturing.
Soft-Computing
Design Methodology
Among these, the last five areas suggest where
Control Theory
significant activities have been and will take place in
Physical (Mechanical)
1990 2000 the midstream as shown in Fig. 1, i.e. physical systems,
Systems 1970 1980
as the 20th century ends and the 21st century begins.
Electronics There have been visible mechatronics research activ-
Micro-processors ities in these areas, and some of them will be reviewed in
Computers the next section. On the other hand, the first three areas
CAD systems
Local Networks Embedded may be understood as enabling technologies from the
Wireless Comm. DSP
The Internet Information viewpoint of mechatronics.
Technology Microelectro-mechanical systems (MEMS) has been a
Fig. 1. Evolution of mechatronics. popular research area in recent years. This is consistent
with the second area identified in the ASME report,
miniaturization. It is also a rapidly growing industry,
trends in the industry with the following points (Masten,
the size of which has exceeded $10 billion already, and
1998): (1) knowledge is king, (2) innovation is essential,
millions of MEMS have been in products such as
(3) cost: what is ‘‘new’’ today becomes a ‘‘commodity’’
automotive air bags and ink jet printers (The New York
tomorrow, (4) products are becoming more complex and
Times, 2000). MEMS technology has been applied to
system based with higher performance, (5) short design
develop tiny optical switches for handling high volumes
cycles are more common, (6) markets are increasingly
of data and voice traffic in communications. MEMS
global and more competitive, and (7) design teams are a
itself is a wonderful example of mechatronics. As
preferred approach. Mechatronics offers the best
another measure that indicates the importance of
practice to meet these challenges.
miniaturization, the US Government invested $270 M
The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. In
in the year 2000 in the National Nanotechnology
Section 2, we will examine some key trends in the 21st
Initiative (NSTC, 2000).
century that will affect engineering. These trends are not
Regarding the demographic change, the ASME report
necessarily new. In Section 3, we will review on-going
states, ‘‘Demography is the second powerful force that is
research projects which exhibit many aspects of mecha-
transforming the world’s economies and societies. In the
tronics. We will comment on mechatronics from the
next 40 years, the world’s human population is expected
viewpoint of education in Section 4. Conclusions will be
to grow by about 50%. y The baby boomers will enter
given in Section 5.
advanced maturity and then old age.’’ The report then
touches several specific aspects including the trend in
Europe and Japan that the population is rapidly aging.
2. Mechanical engineering in the 21st century Although not discussed in the ASME report, this trend
will motivate mechatronics for taking care of elderly
The American Society of Mechanical Engineers people (e.g. nursing robots). Tanie (1999) calls it human
(ASME) recently published a report entitled ‘‘Mechan- friendly mechatronics.
ical Engineering in the 21st Century: Trends Impacting
the Profession’’ prepared by the Hudson Institute, Inc.
(1999). Its contents are highly relevant to the evolution
of mechatronics from the 20th to 21st century. It 3. MechatronicsFresearch opportunities
describes the trends of change in engineering in the
following four categories: technological change, demo- It was mentioned that a major driver of mechatronics
graphic change, economic change and social change. In is the needs of industry, and that mechatronics offers the
terms of technological change, the following eight areas best practice. This does not mean that mechatronics
are identified to impact (mechanical) engineering in refers only to how things should be done in the
major ways: development of products by various industries. In fact,
mechatronics provides a number of interesting research
1. information technology, topics to university researchers. Mechatronics research
2. miniaturization, in academia should be at the forefront of any existing
3. materials science, fields (e.g. transportation, biomedical, and so on) or
4. bioengineering and medicine, even define a new field. It should yet remain relevant to
5. energy, industries. Such industries may be existing, or yet to be
6. transportation, formed in response to the need of society. In this section,
 M. Tomizuka / Control Engineering Practice 10 (2002) 877–886
we describe research opportunities for researchers
primarily in dynamic systems and control.
3.1. Modern mechatronic system and research
opportunities
Fig. 2 shows a block diagram of modern mechatronic
systems. It looks like a typical block diagram found in
control textbooks with the two additional blocks:
human–machine interfaces and link to other systems.
Note that we have placed the computation block in the
middle to emphasize that the computer plays the central
role in modern mechatronic systems. This block may
represent a variety of hardware devices such as
programmable logic controllers, DSPs, embedded mi-
cro-controllers and their combinations as well as soft-
ware that realizes decision-making algorithms.
Mechatronics research should start with a clear idea
on the target physical system. In other words, mecha-
tronics research should not be methodology driven. A
technical paper on a new control methodology with an
illustrative example may be a fine contribution to
technical journals on controls, but most likely will not
be appropriate for mechatronics journals. Having said
this, many research topics addressed by researchers in
the area of dynamic systems and control are relevant to
and of critical importance to mechatronics. For
example, the following research topics address impor-
tant aspects in the development of engineering systems
and are relevant to mechatronics.
* modeling and identification of dynamic systems,
* simple yet reliable tuning of robust controllers,
* comparison of various control methods in terms of
performance and implementation costs including
complexity,
Link to Other Systems Human-Mach.
The Internet, Interface
wireless communication human factors
Computers/DSP
decision making
Instrumentation
Actuation
energy conversion
power modulation
signal conditioning
Physical Systems
mechanical, electrical, etc. and
their combinations
Fig. 2. Modern mechatronic system.
879
* robust control without high-gain nature for pro-
longed actuator life and minimized vibration,
* control with low-frequency output measurements,
* simultaneous design of control algorithms and fault
detection algorithms.
Isermann (1997) presents a forceful argument that the
development of mechatronic systems is a real challenge
for control engineering.
If we consider mechatronics from the view point of
concurrent engineering (Van Brussel, 1996), the ‘‘me-
chatronics nature’’ of research becomes more apparent
when the consideration on control algorithms is coupled
with the selection and placement of sensors and/or even
the design of target physical (mechanical) systems.
MEMS is relevant to this because it is a technology
for co-location of sensors and actuators, which often
makes the controller design easy.
Fig. 3 summarizes the activities of Mechanical Sys-
tems Control Laboratory in the Mechanical Engineering
department of the University of California at Berkeley.
The laboratory has worked on a variety of mechanical
systems to study the role and utilization of control
methodologies. It should be noted in the figure that
balloons for application areas and the control theory
balloon are connected by lines with arrows on both
ends. Motivations for developing new ideas in the
control theory balloon have their origins in problems
encountered in specific application. Repetitive control
(Tomizuka, Tsao, & Chew, 1989) is such an example.
The development of the discrete time repetitive control
theory was motivated by noncircular machining (Tsao &
Tomizuka, 1994) as well as disk file control to
compensate for the eccentricity of data tracks on the
disk relative to the center of disk rotation (Messner,
Kempf, Tomizuka, & Horowitz, 1993). The zero phase
error tracking control (ZPETC) (Tomizuka, 1987) was
Vehicles Information
automated steering Storage Devices
suspension systems hard disk drives
traction control CD drives
Control Theory
adaptive control
nonlinear control
digital control
...
robots motors
machining center linear motors
x-y table inverted
paper copier pendulum
Fig. 3. Control of mechanical systems.
880 M. Tomizuka / Control Engineering Practice 10 (2002) 877–886
conceived as a simple means to realize feedforward
control for x2y tables and other motion control devices.
Almost all research projects in the laboratory have
analytical and experimental components. This style of
research naturally evolves into control oriented mecha-
tronics research.
3.2. Mechatronic projectsFexamples
In this section, we will review three research projects,
each of which has some distinctive mechatronics nature.
3.2.1. Automated steering systems for vehicles on
automated highways
The California Partners for Advanced Transit and
Highway (PATH) Programs was established in 1986 to
promote the application of advanced technology to help
meet California’s growing need for increased highway
capacity to relieve congestion. The idea of automated
highway systems (AHS) was identified as an attractive
option for solving the congestion problem while
improving the operation of highways in many respects
including safety, fuel economy and pollution. AHS
research has been a major part of the PATH program.
AHS is one form of intelligent transportation systems
(ITS). As identified in the ASME report, transportation
is of critical importance in the 21st century. Each vehicle
on the automated highway must be equipped with the
longitudinal and the lateral controller. The longitudinal
controller maintains the distance (or time headway)
between one vehicle and another in front of it at a
desired value by manipulating the engine output and the
brake force. The lateral controller provides the auto-
mated steering capability and it ensures that the vehicle
is kept on a specified lane.
From the viewpoint of mechatronics, AHS is an
excellent case of system integration incorporating items
in Fig. 1 and other items. Vehicle longitudinal and
lateral controls are sub-problems in AHS, but they
include a number of mechatronics issues such as system
integration, advanced controls, communications and
selection of sensors for better controllability and fault
management.
In vehicle lateral control for AHS, it is critically
important how the vehicle’s position and orientation
relative to the road are measured or obtained. Various
road reference/sensing systems have been proposed in
the past for this purpose. PATH adopted the magnetic
marker (nail) system with on-board magnetometers. In
this method, magnets are buried at equally spaced
intervals along the automated lane. PATH researchers
developed robust signal processing schemes for obtain-
ing the lateral error, as well as, encoding schemes to
embed other types of information such as preview road
curvature information in binary form by alternating the
polarity of the magnets. Furthermore, it compares
favorably with other schemes in terms of evaluation
criteria such as accuracy, reliability, maintainability,
and cost.
The road reference-sensing system based on magnetic
markers is a look-down system. If the magnetometer is
placed under the front bumper, the system allows only a
small amount of ‘‘look-ahead’’ relative to the center
of gravity of the vehicle. On the other hand, the
vision camera defines a look-ahead system with an
ample amount of look ahead. The nature of the open
loop dynamics from the steering input to the
sensor output makes feedback control design easier
when the sensor is placed ahead of the vehicle, say by
5 m, to allow an ample look-ahead distance. It is not
practical to place a ‘‘real’’ magnetometer say 5 m ahead
of the vehicle. Thus, PATH researchers devised an
interesting mechatronics solution for realizing a larger
look-ahead distance based on multiple magnetometers.
They installed magnetometers under both the front and
rear bumpers, i.e. the lateral error at the front bumper,
ys ; and at the rear bumper, yr ; were measured (see
Fig. 4).
Under the assumption that the road is straight, front
and rear magnetometer measurements are converted to
the lateral error at the tractor’s CG and the relative yaw
error by
lr1 ysf þ lf 1 ysr
yr ¼ ;
lf 1 þ lr1
ysf  ysr ysf  ysr
er ¼ tan1 E ;
lf 1 þ lr1 lf 1 þ lr1
where l1 ; l2 ; ysf ; ysr and gr are as defined in Fig. 4. These
two quantities can be combined to synthesize the lateral
error at the virtual sensor located at any distance ahead
of the vehicle. This makes it possible to allow the look-
down system based on magnetic markers behave like a
look-ahead system, i.e.
yv ¼ yr þ dv e r :
PATH has developed a variety of algorithms based on
the magnetic reference systems (Peng & Tomizuka,
1993; Patwardhan, Tan, & Guldner, 1997) leading to
the successful demonstration at the 1997 National
Fig. 4. Error sensing by front and rear sensors.
 M. Tomizuka / Control Engineering Practice 10 (2002) 877–886
Fig. 5. PATH Platoon demonstration (NAHSC demonstration in San
Diego, 1997).
Automated Highway Systems Consortium (NAHSC)
Demonstration in San Diego in 1997 (Fig. 5). The
sensing scheme described above was a critical element in
the success of the demonstration, which reminds us that
the design of control systems is not merely a selection of
control algorithms but is a synergistic integration of a
variety of elements such as sensors, actuators and control
algorithms.
The current research on the automated steering
system at PATH emphasizes heavy vehicles such as
tractor–trailer combinations and commuter busses. The
experimental vehicle is a Freightliner FLD120 class 8
tractor and a Great Dane trailer (Hingwe, Tai, Wang, &
Tomizuka, 1999). Fig. 6 shows the instrumentation on
the experimental vehicle. The figure suggests the
mechatronics nature involved in this problem. In
particular, it is noted that three sets of magnetometers
are placed on the vehicle at the front and rear ends of
the tractor and the rear end of the trailer. Also the
independent trailer brake actuators act as a secondary
input for lateral control. At curved sections of highways,
the tractor’s front wheel and the trailer’s rear wheel
follow different paths, which is known as off-tracking.
The amount of off-tracking depends on the vehicle
speed, and it must be taken into consideration in lateral
control. Thus, the lateral control problem is not merely
to keep the sensor output at zero.
Linear robust control algorithms and nonlinear
adaptive control algorithms have been developed for
the Freightliner test vehicle, and their effectiveness has
been experimentally demonstrated. In vehicle control,
the interaction between the road and tires, which
generates the lateral force for vehicle to turn, is very
complex, and the advantages of adaptive control have
been pointed out by analysis and simulations.
Another emphasis in the current research at PATH is
on failure detection and fault tolerant control. The
failure detection and fault management has been studied
881
Fig. 6. Sensors and actuators for lateral control: (1) front magnet-
ometer array, (2) steering actuator, (3) computer, (4) gyroscope and
accelerometer, (5) rear magnetometer array, (6) articulation angle
sensor, (7) gyroscope and accelerometer, (8) trailer magnetometer
array, (9) tractor front braking actuators, (10) tractor rear braking
actuator, (11) independent trailer braking actuators, (12) steering
wheel angle sensor.
at PATH for some time, since safety is an important
issue in any automated system. This has also been a
motivation for our recent study on fault tolerant lateral
control systems for AHS (Suryanarayanan, Tomizuka,
& Suzuki, 2000).
3.2.2. Computer HDDs
Magnetic HDDs are representative mechatronics
devices (Messner & Horowitz, 1998). Fig. 7 shows a
3.500 HDD. The HDD industry is striving for higher
aereal storage density, higher data transfer rate and
lower cost. The aereal data storage density of commer-
cial drives has been increasing at a rate 60% per year.
Since the first disk drive was introduced in 1957, the
data storage density has increased by a factor of
5,000,000. There are a number of amazing technologies
involved in disk drives. The slider, on which the
recording head is mounted, flies over a rotating disk at
a height of about 20 nm. This is analogous to a Boeing
747 flying at an altitude of o1 mm. The small flying
height is required to maximize the storage density. The
number of data tracks per radial length is currently
about 20–30 K tracks per inch (TPI). TPI is expected to
double by end of this year. HDD can now store date at
unbelievable densities exceeding 10 gigabits per square
inch. Researchers are now looking into a variety of new
technologies (Taigo, 2000). There are several different
ways to increase the data transfer rate. Both the disk
rotational speed and the track seeking time are
882 M. Tomizuka / Control Engineering Practice 10 (2002) 877–886

single actuator technology will reach its fundamental

limit. To prepare for this situation, the dual stage
actuator is receiving an increased level of attention in
the disk drive industry (Ohtsuki, Mori, Munemoto, &
Akagi, 1992; Schroceck & Messner, 1999; Ding,
Tomizuka, & Numasato, 2000). The majority of dual
stage actuators utilize the conventional voice coil motor
primary stage and a piezoelectric secondary stage.
MEMS offers an alternative option for second stage
actuation (Horsley, Horowitz, & Pisano, 1998).

3.2.3. Media handling mechanisms for printing engines

A significant amount of the dissatisfaction with
current printers and copiers is associated with malfunc-
Fig. 7. HDD unite: (1) voice coil motor, (2) actuator pivot, (3) tions in their media handling system. In typical copiers,
actuator arm, (4) read/write (recording) head, (5) data track, (6) papers must travel along the paper path from the feeder
spindle motor axis. to the finisher making many turns and going through
nip rollers. There is essentially no feedback control of
paper motions except at the final printing stage. The
important. Access time, which depends on these two
lack of control often results in the so-called soft jam. If a
factors, has been improved by a factor of 3 during the
sheet does not arrive at a checking station as expected,
past ten years. The importance of the servo control is
the machine is automatically shut down. In an NSF-
easy to recognize.
sponsored project entitled ‘‘Mechatronic Design and
The current disk drives use the so-called sector servo
Control of Media Handling Mechanisms for Printing
method. In this method, the disk is divided into angular
Engines’’ the University of California at Berkeley (UCB)
sections (sectors) and servo information is written at
and Xerox are jointly studying the integration of
every sector. The recording head reads the position error
sensing, control and decision-making methodologies in
signal (PES) once in each sector. A challenge in the
the mechanical design and the real-time control of
design of these systems is to minimize the number of
copying machines. Fig. 8 shows a bench fixture built for
sectors (equivalently the sampling rate), while continu-
studying feedback control of paper motions along the
ing to meet tracking performance requirements. There
paper path. The unique feature of this set-up is that an
has been a number of interesting control ideas intro-
independent motor is placed at each section of the paper
duced to disk file controls. Repetitive control is such an
path. This added flexibility enables independent position
idea (Tomizuka et al., 1989). In standard digital control,
control of sheets in different sections by running the
the control input is updated at every instant of output
sections at different velocities. Additional optical
(error) measurement. This standard scheme is called the
sensors and encoders are used to improve the sheet
single rate scheme. The updating rate of control input,
however, can be more frequent than the measurement-
sampling rate. Such control methods belong to multirate
control, and several kinds of multirate control have been
proposed for HDDs (Chiang, 1990; Kobayashi et al.,
1998; Hara & Tomizuka, 1999). A multirate approach
has also been suggested to decrease the implementation
cost of repetitive control (Smith, Takeuchi, & Tomizu-
ka, 1999). PES is the major information source in the
disk drive servo system. There have been several
attempts to improve performance by utilizing informa-
tion from additional sensors. Accelerometers have
shown to improve the track following performance by
canceling the effect of external vibration on PES (White
& Tomizuka, 1997) and eliminating the effect of pivot
friction (Ishikawa & Tomizuka, 1998). The design of a
high-bandwidth disk drive servo system using a suspen-
sion instrumented with strain gauge sensors is described
in Huang, Banther, Mathur, and Messner (1999). As
TPI increases every year, it is expected that the current Fig. 8. Experimental set-up for paper motion control.
 M. Tomizuka / Control Engineering Practice 10 (2002) 877–886
position estimates. The increased level of flexibility
naturally leads to a more complicated machine. From a
control theoretical point of view, the overall system
becomes a hybrid system: it is a dynamical system in the
usual sense but changes its configuration as well as
operation principles at discrete points in time. It is an
excellent mechatronics project. Details of the experi-
mental setup along with some simulation and experi-
mental results are given in Kruchinski, Cloet, Horowitz,
and Tomizuka (2000).
3.2.4. Other research areas
There are a number of other research areas where
mechatronics thinking is extremely important. They
include but are not limited to robotics and automation,
manufacturing, biomedical engineering, energy and the
environment, and large-scale structures such as bridges
and buildings.
There is no question that robots represent a challen-
ging area from the mechatronics point of view, and most
compelling examples of mechatronics are often found in
the robotics area. In fact, many challenging problems
such as design and construction of light weight robots
(e.g. DLR Lightweight Robot, www.robotic.dlr.de),
intelligent robotics and robotic surgery require mecha-
tronic approaches.
Mechatronics has been and will be playing an
important role in the area of medicine and surgery
(Hewit, 1995; Cavsoglu, Tendick, Cohn, & Sastry,
1999). For example, minimally invasive surgery (MIS)
is a revolutionary approach in surgery. In MIS, the
surgery is performed with instruments and viewing
equipment inserted into the body through small
incisions, minimizing the surgical trauma and damage
to the healthy tissue. It is a telesurgery similar to a
remote operation for handling hazardous materials.
While MIS results in shorter patient recovery time, there
are a number of research issues associated with reduced
dexterity, workspace, and sensory input to the surgeon
that is only available through a monoscopic video image
(Cavsoglu, Tendick, Cohn, & Sastry, 1999). MIS defines
a human–machine system, and the block diagram of a
typical telesurgical workstation resembles the diagram
in Fig. 2.
In a recent article in Business Week, Port (2000) states
‘‘Mechanical body parts could someday make disabil-
ities irrelevant in the workplace.’’ Artificial organs (and
projected dates of availability) compiled in the article
include artificial-vision brain implants (2001), perma-
nent mechanical heart implants (2010), lungs and
kidneys (2015), synthetic muscles (2019), and artificial
eye implants (2024). These biomedical applications show
that the human body may be an important component
of mechatronic systems or that the human and
mechatronic devices interact in synergistic ways. The
interface between human and machine relies on the
883
human’s five senses, among which visual and haptic are
most popular. In particular, research on haptics has
expanded and branched out in new directions such as
real-time transmission and display of haptic informa-
tion. Another interesting integration of human and
machine is studied at the Human Engineering Labora-
tory at UC Berkeley (http://www.me.berkeley.edu/hel/).
The members of this laboratory carry out research
efforts on design and control of a class of robot
manipulators worn by humans to augment human
mechanical strength, while the wearer’s intellect remains
the central control system for manipulating the robot.
The key point in their systems is the exchange of both
information signals and physical power. A recent
accomplishment of this group was the development of
a machine that successfully maneuvered heavy loads in
isolated areas for extended periods of time (Neuhaus &
Kazerooni, 2000). Human is involved in the operation
of this machine.
As we look into the next decade, we may predict
several natural trends based on the ASME report. We
may safely state that mechatronics in the 21st century
will heavily depend on information technology and
miniaturization. Such technology will make it possible
to provide remote monitoring of home appliances,
automobiles and elderly or handicapped people.
4. MechatronicsFeducational challenges
Engineering education is facing challenges in the
midst of rapid progress of information technology. In
terms of starting salaries offered by industries to new
graduates, computer science (CS) has been the leader at
all levels (BS, MS and Ph.D.) for some years. High
school students often do not have a clear idea of what
they want to do. Often their decisions are based on
conversation with parents, older relatives or friends,
which combined with headline news on IT, motivates
many of them to send applications specifying ‘‘computer
science.’’ At the University of California at Berkeley,
our current experience is that nearly 50% of under-
graduate applications to the Engineering College are
concentrated in CS. In Berkeley’s Electrical Engineering
and Computer Science (EECS) Department, the ratio of
undergraduate enrollment was two EE students for
every CS student a decade ago. This ratio has been
reversed and it is now two CS students for every EE
student. The popularity of CS is not a new phenomenon.
In the 1980s, CS once attracted many applications. At
that time, many universities struggled to keep up with
the demand for computer science courses to provide
students with knowledge about programing languages,
operating systems and computer architecture. This
boom did not last for a long time. CS graduates with
programming skills were not necessarily appreciated by
884 M. Tomizuka / Control Engineering Practice 10 (2002) 877–886

industry executives either. No fundamental curricula In fact, the points made by Craig and Carryer are
revision, however, was considered at that time to important in engineering education. Every undergradu-
respond to the need of industries. ate student in mechanical and electrical engineering as
The strong application demand from students and the well as in other engineering disciplines should be trained
strong supply demand from all segments of industries so that they can effectively utilize IT tools along with
that universities are currently facing in IT are more than their analytical skills to solve engineering system
a temporary boom. Educators have recognized that problems. Effective communication with others is a
engineering curricula must be revised in fundamental necessary requirement. Furthermore, students should be
ways so that universities may supply leaders to advance trained to be forward looking and curious. Issues
IT and professionals to apply IT in various industries surrounding integration as well as working in team
(Wilson, 1998). cannot be taught in lecture courses. Students must
Lee and Messerschmit (1998) state: experience them, and in this regard laboratory courses
are essential in mechatronics education.
We believe that the center of gravity of most
At the UCB, a senior level course on mechanical
undergraduate curricula today is too far on the side
engineering design has been converted into a new course
of attempting to train the small cadre of technical
on mechatronics design. During a 15-week period, the
experts, a hopeless task within a four-or-five-year
course covers microcontrollers, real-time software,
program. Because of the hopelessness of the task, we
electric motors, pneumatics and hydraulics, transmis-
cram too much content into the program, thinking it
sion systems, brakes and clutches, power electronics,
makes it better (and somehow less hopeless). This
bearings, and sensors. The course ends with the
shuts out other fundamental knowledge that we
inventors’ open house, where students present their
believe will be extremely valuable to them in their
projects. For projects, students normally work in a
design careers. Students have been seriously short-
group of three to four. Feedback control is not a
changed by not understanding the big picture.
prerequisite for the course, but projects are often quite
We advocate an alternative vision in which the sophisticated involving feedback control. Project titles
undergraduate program focuses on a limited and from recent offering of the course include automatic
carefully chosen set of core ideas, supplemented by bicycle gear shifter, automated rice cooker, and walking
real-world examples and importantly by student self- robots.
exploration and learning. Such an undergraduate Figs. 9 and 10 present several examples of laboratory
program also emphasizes breadth, an exposure to a sessions from a UCBs’ graduate course on switching
range of technical issues, as well as mathematics, control and computer interfacing.
science, humanities, and social sciences. At the graduate level, in particular doctorate students
should be exposed to a broad spectrum of fundamental
In a field as dynamic as ours, no set of vocational
theories such as control theory. ‘‘Fundamentals are
skills has any significant longevity. It is far more
fundamental’’ (Masten, 1998) is important for future
important that our graduates be bright, curious,
academic and industrial leaders.
intellectual, and unafraid of leaning new things.
As stated already, many high-school students have a
This statement is highly relevant when we talk about simple equation Information Technology=Computer
mechatronics education. Craig (1998) states: Science Department, and they do not realize how other
In mechatronics, balance is paramount. The essential
characteristic of a mechatronics engineer and the key
to success in mechatronics is a balance between two
skills:
* modeling (physical and mathematical), analysis
(closed form and numerical simulation), and control
design (analog and digital) of dynamic physical
systems,
* experimental validation of models and analysis (for
computer simulation without experimental verifica-
tion is at best questionable, and at worst useless) and
understanding the key issues in hardware implemen-
tation of designs.

Carryer (1998) emphasizes integration. While these Fig. 9. Working on the milling machine (picture: courtesy of Professor
comments are not necessarily fresh, they are all essential. D. Auslander).
 M. Tomizuka / Control Engineering Practice 10 (2002) 877–886
Fig. 10. Automatic train loading (picture: courtesy of Professor D.
Auslander).
engineering disciplines are changing with IT. In this
regard, the role of educators must go beyond how
mechatronics should be taught. It is important that we
direct the attention of high-school students and college
freshmen and sophomores to the exciting field of
mechatronics. At the UCB, the College of Engineering
admits a good number of freshmen under category of
undeclared major. They decide their majors when they
are advanced to the junior level. Freshman seminar
courses are intended to expose newly admitted students
to a variety of engineering disciplines. Incorporating
mechatronics flavors to such presentations makes any
engineering discipline more attractive to undergraduate
students.
5. Conclusions
The paper emphasized the evolution of mechatronics,
and described the opportunities and challenges in
mechatronics research and education. Mechatronics is
essential as the best industrial practice in today’s global
and competitive market. At the same time, mechatronic
thinking forms the basics of the modern engineering
education. The mechatronics approach is particularly
relevant in mechanical engineering and electrical en-
gineering. Faculty members specializing in control and
design must act as leaders to bring mechatronics into the
engineering curriculum.
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