December 15, 2006
Troy, N.Y. — Kevin Craig, professor of mechanical, aerospace, and nuclear engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, is featured in a new videocast series launched by Design News magazine. Titled “Mechatronics: 21st Century Design Engineering,” the video features case studies covering mechatronic design from prototype to deployment.
Mechatronics is the integration through design of mechanical engineering, electronics, computers, and controls, according to Craig, who created the Mechatronics Teaching and Research Laboratory at Rensselaer. “Imagine being able to improve your golf game or any other skill because you not only know why your technique works, but you’re able to replicate and improve it,” he said. “Mechatronics takes the mystery out of why things work or don’t work through a systematic engineering approach that integrates the best of all the available technologies to accomplish the task at hand.”
As part of a mechatronics class project with Craig, a team of Rensselaer undergraduate students recently built a self-balancing human transport device modeled after the Segway Human Transporter. The students and their transporter were featured during a keynote address at NIWeek, the world’s largest virtual instrumentation conference and exhibition, held Aug. 8-10, 2006 in Austin, Texas.
Mechatronics is increasingly being employed by engineers in fields as varied as aerospace and agriculture to improve products and develop new ones, and growth of mechatronic design practices will accelerate over the next several years, according to new research from Reed Business Information. Forty-six percent of 1,095 engineers who responded to an online survey from Design News, EDN and Control Engineering said more than half of their design projects currently involve mechatronics. Seventy-one percent said the number of mechatronics projects will increase over the next three years.
Design News is launching the videocast series to help engineers learn about mechatronic design. It is part of a broader, dedicated online mechatronics community that Reed Business Information will launch in January 2007. Beginning in January, Design News also will feature a monthly full-page column about mechatronics written by Craig.
The videocast can be accessed at http://www.designnews.com/webcastarticle/CA6398530.html
Contact: Jason Gorss
Phone: (518) 276-6098
E-mail: gorssj@rpi.edu