Mechatronic futures

The period of over 40 years since the concept of a mechatronic system was introduced to express the growing impact of electronics on the control and operation of inherently mechanical systems has been, and continues to be, a period of significant and rapid technological change which has resulted in a wide range of consumer products structured around the use of smart devices, many of which remain essentially mechatronic in nature. More recently, increasing emphasis on achieving smart integration at the systems level has resulted in the development of concepts such as Cyber-Physical Systems and the Internet of Things in which the interaction between (mechatronic) smart objects and their access to information drives behaviour. The future development of mechatronics within this increasingly knowledge based environment brings with it challenges associated both with the underlying and core technologies and their introduction and use, for instance with regard to user issues such as privacy. In this opening chapter, some of the background to these developments is presented, along with a more general consideration of some of the challenges being facing by mechatronics.