Why don more engineers adopt mechatronics design?
The biggest hurdles are lack of training and experience in one or more engineering disciplines. Electrical engineers aren’t comfortable with mechanical design. Mechanical engineers aren’t comfortable with embedded computers. Some computer specialists aren’t at ease with controls and so on. Until a larger population of synergists is available, mechatronics will struggle to find acceptance. How much progress is there in developing easy-to-use tools for mechatronics? There are a number of very good tools available for software development, control modeling, electrical design and mechanical design. Tools such as LabVIEW, MATLAB, C, Pro/E and various flavors of spice are well-established. They also are becoming easier for the novice to use, but there is still a wide gap between having a useful collection of tools and an all-in-one expert design system that can optimize a complete design. These tools also are not the final solution. We still need engineers to be trained in all four disciplin
