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[December 2007] Welcome to the Mechatronics, Informatics and Control Group (MICG) newsletter. This is the first of an intended quarterly publication whose remit is to support and inform those within the Institution who are interested in the activities of the Group. The MICG has two Working Groups, one in Mechatronics and the other covering Informatics and Control. In both cases, the scope of each Working Group is wide.
Whether you are from an academic or industrial background, the purpose of the newsletter is to keep you informed of the activities being organised by the MICG on your behalf and to respond in a positive manner to suggestions for the organisation of particular events which may be beneficial to yourself and others. In addition, the newsletter will react to any comments which will help to improve the transfer of knowledge and learning within the Institution as a whole. Indeed, it is hoped you will feel this to be a value added benefit to your IMechE membership and that you will avail yourself of this forum for the distribution of informed views.
Details of the events being organised by the Work Groups can be found below.
Finally, remember in order to provide a first class service which is relevant to the requirements of our engineering sector and your individual professional development we need to know what activities and events should be undertaken, so please provide us with feedback.
Best wishes
Professor Robert Sutton (MICG Chairman)
Donald Julius Groen Prize
The 2006 Julius Groen Prize was awarded to Prof Shinichi Yokota and Mr Kazuya Edamura for their paper entitled New construction of an electro-conjugate fluid-jet-driven micromotor with an inner diameter of 2mm. Mr Kazuya Edamura and Mrs Edamura attended the MICG Board lunch to receive his award, and Prof Yokota's award on his behalf.
ECF (Electro Conjugate Fluid) is a unique clear liquid which generates a strong jet flow (ECF-jet) between electrodes under electric field. Many applications using ECF-jet, such as micromotors, microactuators and micropumps, are under development. ECF-jet driven micromotor with an inner diameter of 2mm was one of the ECF development applications in our research lab. ECF micropump is also designed with the 1mm thickness (called as paperpump) for CPU cooling device application.
The current research status can be found at:
Recently, joint R&D work between TIT (Tokyo Institute of Technology) and Tamagawa Seiki Co.,Ltd. started on ECF micro-rate-gyroscope, which target size is a small button. It will be applied in automobile industries. This joint research project was selected as one of the "potentiality verification stage" subjects of innovative seeds and financially supported by Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) this year.
See: http://www.jst.go.jp/EN/menu2/03.html
20cm hight ECF-jet spout from needle-nozzle electrodes ECF pump (using 2 6P batteries) was demonstrated in the prize ceremony. This pump principle is also used in several ECF applications, such as ECF microgyros, ECF microfingers and ECF micromuscles.
Mechatronics Engineering Student of the Year Award 2008
The Mechatronics Forum is proud to announce the 2008 Mechatronics Engineering Student of the Year Award, which has been specifically designed to help raise the profile of mechatronics design philosophy and mechatronics engineering education. The award provides a showcase for educational excellence by publicly recognising, and rewarding the exceptional achievements of both students and universities. We hope that we may look forward to your institution’s participation in this award.
We would like to ask your department to help us identify the Mechatronics Engineering Student of the Year who best demonstrates the application of the mechatronics philosophy to an engineering problem that provides an innovative and economical solution and who can present the solution professionally to our Judging Panel. Entry will be limited to one student (or one group of students – group projects) from each degree programme.
The competition is based around a submission of student's individual final year project report (or the group project report). A hard copy of the student’s final year project together with the entry form should be forwarded to the Mechatronics Forum, IMechE.
Deadline for synopsis is Monday, 23rd July 2008
The competition poster and criteria can be found here
Mechatronics 2006:
The 10th Mechatronics Forum Biennial International Conference was held at Penn State Great Valley, on June 19-21, 2006. The three day program included three keynote addresses. Alex Mouzakitis from the Jaguar Engineering Center in the UK spoke on the development, testing and validation of complex automotive systems. Gregory Clark from the University of Utah gave an astonishing presentation on the next generation of neurally controlled prosthetic limbs, and Tony Healey from the Naval Postgraduate School at Monterey spoke about autonomous underwater vehicles in a collaborative network setting. The conference attracted many submissions from which forty eight presentations were selected and given by delegates from fifteen countries. The conference concluded with a visit to the Philadelphia Navy Yard.
Mechatronics 2008:
The next Mechatronics conference will be held on 23-25 June 2008 in Limerick
More details can be obtained here
New Technical Information and Market Data at your fingertips
The IMechE Information and library Service has recently launched two extra free online resources for members:
Books24x7 delivers fully searchable full text access to over 350 industry-leading reference books, covering a wide range of topics of critical importance to engineering professionals, as well as core business and management titles. Titles include Control systems design: a new framework, Embedded generation, Introduction of microelectromechanical systems, MEMs mechanical sensors, and Microsystems technology, fabrication test and reliability.
Snapshots' market research reports provide up-to-date statistical overviews of over 30 different industries, including consumer electronics, electronic equipment, and healthcare and medical equipment, in 40 different countries. Information on market trends, market size, key companies, segmentation and future forecasts is given.
These new resources complement the online services already available in the Virtual Library – these include technical databases as well as high quality engineering e-books in the Knovel database, such as the Springer Handbook of Nanotechnology, the Mechanisms and Mechanical Devices Sourcebook and Microsensors, MEMS, and Smart Devices, Analysis, and Applications and e-journals, such as the latest issue of the Journal of Nanoengineering and Nanosystems, the Journal of Engineering in Medicine and the Journal of Systems and Control Engineering from the IMechE Proceedings. The wide-range of information available means that you can use the Virtual Library as a quick on-the-job reference tool, as well as for more in-depth research. The Virtual Library is available to you wherever you are, 24 hours a day, and it is completely free - all you need to do is log-in to the Members’ Area at www.imeche.org/imember and select the Virtual Library menu option.
If you have any questions about using the Virtual Library, please don’t hesitate to contact the Information and Library Service. The ILS team is happy to search any of the databases on your behalf.
Information and Library Service
Institution of Mechanical Engineers, 1 Birdcage Walk, London SW1H 9JJ
Tel: +44(0)20 7973 1274
Fax: +44(0)20 7222 8762
Email: library@imeche.org
Website: www.imeche.org/imember
Control Techniques for Dynamic Testing:
optimising load and motion accuracy in the laboratory
19 September 2007
IMechE, 1 Birdcage Walk, London
Dynamic testing of structures and components in the laboratory to determine their mechanical properties is an essential part of engineering research and development. Test apparatus of increasing sophistication is being developed to replicate real-world forces and motions within the laboratory environment. Accurate control of actuators is vital to the effectiveness of such apparatus, and the advances in closed and open loop control algorithms which address this need were the subject of this seminar.
Ten speakers presented the current industrial state-of-the-art and on-going research in the field. Instron's head of control system development described existing auto-tuning and adaptive control methods, and recent work on auto-tuning for direct drive electrically actuated machines. Dr Raath, Managing Director of CaTs3 Ltd, described some of his work with BMW using time-domain iterative control in advanced front-suspension testing, and also for wheel and brake durability test rigs ('ZWARPs'). Tiab Ltd presented its philosophy of providing a flexible control platform for development of application-specific units, and Andrey Gizatullin of IST GmbH described his research into adaptive control of MAST tables. Academic contributions were heard from the Universities of Bath, Bristol, Sheffield, Oxford and Napier University. These included new algorithms for iterative control (Sheffield and Napier), and control methods for hybrid testing (Bristol and Oxford).
Hybrid testing, also called dynamic substructuring or model-in-the-loop testing, concerns testing of specimens which are part-real and part-virtual, and is an area of growing interest in the testing field.
The seminar attracted about 60 delegates, representing test system designers, manufacturers and suppliers, as well as users of test systems from the automotive, motorsport, aerospace and other advanced engineering industries.
On the day the presentations which were made were:
- Control Techniques for Dynamic Testing: - Overview
- Auto-Tuning and Adaptive Control in Materials Test Machines
- A Flexible Platform for Developing Control Techniques for Dynamic Testing
- Control and Synchronisation of Dynamically Substructured Systems
- Compensation of Actuator Dynamics in Real-Time Hybrid Tests
- Application of Optimal Iterative Learning Control Techniques in Dynamic Testing
- Modernised Front Suspension and Wheel Durability Testing
- Response Reproduction from Non Linear Systems
- Adaptive Control for a Multi-Axis Hydraulic Test Rig
Professor A R Plummer
University of Bath
Chairman
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