What is Mechatronics at the FH Vorarlberg
Profession with a future
Mechatronics is a relatively young branch of engineering that builds on the classical fields of mechanics, electronics and computer science, linking them across disciplines. Mechatronics is a promising discipline that will provide countless challenges for inventive minds. There is an unmistakeable trend from pure mechanical and pure electronic products to mechatronic systems. The integration of various disciplines strengthens and entangles itself more and more. The mechatronic systems are becoming constantly compacter and smaller. They are penetrating into microtechnology and increasingly finding use in all areas, e.g. in medical technology.
The Eldorado for researchers
The development of products with mechatronic systems is exciting: Here, the use of complex and powerful simulation systems are interwoven. The still unachieved goal is the realistic simulation of a product’s entire life cycle. In servicing, there is clearly a growing trend toward the online data collection of all load cycles to derive the service life and possibly the required maintenance work from this.
The science of intelligent machines
In the area of controlling and regulating mechatronic systems, engineers develop concepts that significantly improve the system's behaviour. New sensors and actuators offer overwhelming possibilities. The real-time programming of increasingly complex systems and constantly new tasks makes the highest demands of mechatronic complete systems and their design. Mechatronic engineers keep the overall picture in mind while they develop parts of systems.
