F ~ Q1. Three phases of Power ~caroiaics.

Hilsaorieallg a number d daerent approaches have b e n

~ n ~ ~~ ~, e c ~ a ~isr Bo ~ j ~ ;
done to establish ~ e c f i a ~ r since
m u ~ l ! ~ ~ ~ ~ skchnicd
c ~ p l ~ma.
n a ~In this paper, an approach
from e k c t r i d engineering is =viewed, and then present
status md fudwre perspective of mechatronics are dkaussed.

One of the origins of mechatronics: is "Power

Electronics". %he evolantion of mecbtronics Prom power
electronics to intelligent mechatronics is shown beifow.

1950 - 1970 Power electronics and Electrical Drive

(thynistor, ae drive)
1969' "Mechatronia" was bom
1975 - 1985 Motion Control .
(mie,roprocessor,control theory, high @ power dcvices,
nianipulator)
E985 - Intelligent Mechatronics
(vision, soft computing, sensor fusion,
communication networks)

2.. POWER ELEmROWICS AND ELECTRICAL

DRIVES
Power ELedhonics has progressed through thrm phases as
shown in Fig. 1.
The first phase was triggered by the invention of
thyristors. Since thyristors iiot have turn-off capability,
very skillful commutation circuits were designed.
Several a ~ ~ ~ iof ~power t i electronics
~ n ~ are shown in
Fig. 2. One exitae,me is a very large power application such
as W d c . n e other extreme is the application of small
power but high fiequency, and the example is a switching
regulator.
Among these applications, motor drives occupy the
largest part. Variable-speed drives are still an imporfant

1
application area. Vector control of the induction motor
invented in Germany introduced an epoch in the field of
motor drives. Vector control was applied not only to
induction motor drives but also to synchronous motor
drives; and their control performance was dramatically
improved. The R&D of vector control is still progressing.
3. MOTION CONTROL
Motion Control encompasses every technology related to
the movement of objects. It covers every motion system
from micro-sized systems such as silicon-type micro
induction actuators to mcro-siml systems such as a space
platform. But, these days, the focus of motion control is
the special control technology of motion systems with
electrid actuators such as dciac servo motors. Control of
robotic manipulators is also included in the field of motion
control because most of robotic manipulators are driven by
electrical servo motors and the key objective is the control
of motion.
The development and advances of modem power
electronics have contributed much to the field of motion
control. For example, in motion control an ac servo motor
can be designed to have nearly the same characteristics
(transfer function) aaj dc servo motors. This is because
field-oriented control (vector control) is now available.
This other development is mainly based on the availability
of fast and tremendously advanced power-electronic
switching devicas and microprocessors. In particular, cost
performance of CPU power has increased by more than one
hundred times in the last ten years and we can expect the
same progress for the next ten years. The development of
motion control technology is summarized in Fig. 3.
197UI
Fig. 3 Development of Motion Control field.
4. PRESENT STATUS OF MEGHATRONICS
The definition of mechatronics, in short, is "Control of
mechanical systems through electronics". Mechatronics is
composed of three elements ?hey are Mechanics, Control
and Sensors. A lot of research works have been done in
these areas for the last 25 years, and Mechatronics has been
established as a new engineering discipline.
2
Since research on traditional mechatronics has been almost
completed, recently, mechatronics people have been trying
to make mechatronic systems to be more intelligent. What
is intelligent mechtronics? Our first idea was;
"Fusion of AI and Mechatronics"
We have been working on this topic for several years.
However, we have faced another difficulty. The reason is:
-Research on industrial robot is almost over at
university level.
-AI is not so promising as it was expected.
Then, what is the next. The key words for advanced
intelligent mechatronics are;
"Fusion of Informatics and Mechatronics"
?he breakdown is as follows.
-Robot as interface among humans and machines -Use of
human intelligence
-Use of computer to help human intelligence -Use of
communication networks
Among them the most important item is;
"Use of Communication Networks"
5. NEW TRENDS OF MECHATRONICS
Factory automation with replacement of human workers
by robots is almost completed. Factory automation is
going to CIM. The number of robots applied in CIM
systems are decreasing. In the near future, robots will be
coming into human societies.
Robotics engineers in Japan have started several kinds of
advanced robotics researches under new concepts, which are
briefly described below.
5.1 Computer Nefworked Robotics:
Robotic and mechatronic systems should be connected to
each other through computer networks to posses more
useful functions such as cooperation and data base sharing
to assist people in their daily life. With such reason some
researchers are using the Internet to control robots and
build an interconnected robotic network. Although the
communication speed of such a network is limited to only
some Mbps because of the ability of the Internet, but they
could control robots and complete force sensation
transmitting between Japan and for instance USA. On the
second stage of this kind of research is trying to use the E
ISDN which speed is ahnost 156 Mbps with ATM and
optical fiber. They are able lo send motion picture 2md
force informatibn at the same time to conduct the
complicated tasks like the robotic and mechatronic
systems.
Two year ago in Japan, the Ministry of Construction
organized a project name "Unmanned Construction of a
Barrier to Prevent Landslides" as the preceding research of
computer networked robotics. Ln the project unmanned
construction machines such as trucks bulldozers, power "Motion Planning of Robot to Serve Human softly" by Y.
shovels and etc. were controlled by the radio and positioned Uno
by [GPS. Also there were used 3D images for the control.
This experiment was a kind of tele-operation system
application. We think that this project was a
step into the computer networked robotics.
"Compliance Control for a Machine and Robot" by K.
lanie and Y. Hayashibara
5.2 Easy Programmiiig Robots:
i a ~ for a
" ~ a ~ e rsuhblie achine with Flexible
Tlhis topics is related to skill acquisition and transfer. IS K. Suzunnori

appllicable. If we mn build up the sk

skills in robots

We have a project supported by M m in which a small

industrial robot equipped with a single VR set can ieplace
an assembling task on cheap cost in m
sized enterprises. One special aim could be to keep the
know-how of specialists, using robots.

5.3 Services Robots:

Nowadays we can find a lot of research papers of

autonomous mobile robots with the indention to realize
service robots. In Japan the market of the service robots is by S.Sugamo
thought to become really big in the coming new-age
society.
'7. INPELLIGENNT MECELATRONI RE
PRQSPECF
5.4 'Communication through rob&:
Within the next LO year5 the ~ i i f ~ infrastructure
~ a ~ ~ o ~
This topic is also ed in the comsng new-age (Asynchronous Transfer ode) and optical fiber
society. According to such research we could k able to will
unde:rstmd more about the human beings md
~~~~~~~~~~~~

the results would be utilized to make more wjefbl me8

applicable human-human communication ~~~~~~~~0~~

6. NEW TECHNOLOGIES FOR Ku

COOPERATION

TIE Society of Instrument and ColntaoB ~~~~~~~~~!~~ of

Japan published in April, 11995, a specid issnc d the
journal, titled "New Technologies for EIunmn- Robot
Coo!peration". The table of contents is listed below.

Special Issue on New Technologies

Coolperation - Toward Machine Sapiens

"Technical Issues on Robot-Human CoBlabaratisn" by

Fumio Ham fig. 4 information Infrastructure

"Monitoring of Facial Expression" by H, Kobayashi and
F. Hara
"1nte:ntion and Behavior Understanding for Service Robot"
by T. Sato and H. Mizoguchi
be available in oiur society. The communication speed is
156Mbps and ithe communication ped~rmmceis enough
for us 60 send high quality moving pictures like a
Also we mi expect more high $ p e d communication such
as some Riga bps in 20 years. It tells us that we do not
have lo consider limitatiorms of connmunicatioii technology

3
so seriously when we think of developing new teLhnidogy
(Figure 4). HOW can Robctlcs contribute bo the cornirrg
society with information infrastructure?
There ae two aspects when we discuss the issue. One
aspect is that robot shuiild bt. e~celleniiiiterhce deviw to
connect human to the infomati 3n infraslrucbure.
The other is robot itself. we want to reah?? human like
perfomances in robcds and then they s ~ p p o f lour soaiety
physically. Of course these 2 aspscts are ciosely &fed. Is
robot an excellent interface device? We will have. to sit
d o w still in the front oi computer display with keyboards
in the coming society (Figure 5). Robot should appear a
excellent interface device so that we can get some physimal
service driven by information through the information
infrastracture. For example aged handicapped people wonld
be assisted by robots which are connected l o the
information infrastructure and remote controlled by other
people through the information infrastructure .
attention to studying on human behavior and human
society in ow coming rabotics research. It is completely
djffercnt from clmical engineering. It q u i r e s us to have
wider viewpoints including other disciplines such as
h n a n i t y , sociology, ecology, etc.
8. CONCLUSION
The major points of my discussion on mechatronics is
saammarizd Mow.
1 R w x c h on the traditional mechatronics is almost
completed. 2. R a n t rapid progress of information
technology, rspecially communication network technology
is giving a great impact to the advances of mechatrrsnics.
3. Therefore, fusion of infomatics and inechatronics is the
key thing for the advanced mechatronics.

[I] I3.K Bose,"Power Electronics - A technology review",

Proc. IEEE, vo1.80, no 8, Aug. 1992

i, [2] F'. ~ a r "Power

~ Electronics
~

~ "InteUigent
~ ~ and ~Motion
Control", Proc. IEEE, vol. 82, no. 8, 1994
i-11 I?. ~ ~ Mechatronics",
EWIECQN' 95, vel. 1, ~ I J xxxii
1995
.
~
a ~

~ of
Proc.
xxxiii, Nov.
~ ~ ~ ~

141 F.Hamhima, "Intelligent Mechatronics", Proc. of

lEEE/AMC' 96, March, 1996
Fig. 5 Tele Operation

Wxml Factory Hospital

Fig. 6 Robot Network.

A group of robots which are connected to each other

through information infrastructure will be a necessary
system in the coming society (Figure 6). Each individual
robot has some intelligence not full intelligence so that it
is partly controlled by people through the information
infrastructure. Of course robots are getting autonomous in
accordance with getting intelligence.
The system, mentioned above, in which robots and
humans are connected through corninuriicatiori network is
like a human society. Therefore, we have to pay inore