Programming control systems is a complex matter. Some of the complexity is the history behind it, some is hardware related and some is the interdependency of hardware and software. Control system hardware has migrated from mechanical to electrical, and from electrical to electronic, or digital. Mechanical systems relied on changing gears and pulleys, adjusting hard […]
Control Hardware, Software and Language
Control system hardware is a very diverse business. Siemens, ABB, Eaton, Rockwell and a universe of suppliers make up a marketplace of approximately $200 billion. At the supplier level the definition of control is pretty much anything from medium voltage switchgear, transformers, insulators and everything needed from the electric utility supply down to a 5 […]
Control Programming and Language
Like the Tower of Babel, control system programming in the past was the domain of many disparate languages that did not interact across disciplines. Programming has been a crucial element of control systems since the inception of automation itself. The early days of the PLC were built on the language of electrical wiring diagrams used to […]
Consumer Electric Car
The competition to bring a mass produced electric car to the market is really heating up. There is an underlying assumption that, like flat screen TVs, this thing is going to happen. Like seeing flat screens in science fiction movies, electric cars have been part of the cultural consciousness for more than 35 years, since […]
Belt and Pulley Solutions for Mechanical Power Transmission
Sometimes the old tricks work the best. The Belt and Pulley solution for mechanical power transmission has been around for a couple of centuries, and despite all the ‘high tech’ motion control, it’s still alive and well. This seems strange at first glance, but it’s based on simple mechanical truth; belt and pulley is still the cheapest […]
Heroes or Not
Heroes are people who takes risks. People who struggle against great forces. Sometimes they are People who have a big impact on society in their generation. Sometimes they are People with a big personality who are controversial. Heroes are, in the final analysis, people. Human beings. Some with special gifts and creativity. Some were in the […]
Heroes of Industry
We all have our heroes. The people who epitomize an ethic, embody success, and who we look up to. Film heroes, music heroes, sports heroes, even Heroes of Industry. You can’t get into your car and drive to work without gasoline to power your car. Cars and gasoline was a foundation that began with Ford […]
Mobility, Human and Robotic
The notion of mobility is complex. As human beings we are mobile by design. We are autonomously mobile, we move by our intent. As human beings we also create tools to enhance our mobility. From the invention of the wheel, to the rickshaw, bicycle, the horse drawn carriage and ultimately the automobile, mankind has created tools to increase […]
The Next Age of Robots
If you were a teenager in 1977 and went to see Star Wars the first vision of C3PO and R2D2 would have made quite an impact. In the 39 years since the first Star Wars movie, film makers have inspired a generation of robotics engineers with some amazing and imaginative concepts of what robots could […]
The Future of Mechatronics
Mechatronics, like every other field of human endeavor, is undergoing rapid change driven in large part by the availability of increasingly more powerful processor technology. In the September 2013 issue of Design World the cover article features a “toy” robot based on an inverted pendulum control system. The robot is able to move on a […]
Human Mobility in the Age of Mechatronics
Mobility is critical to our survival. Mobility is required to perform all the basic survival tasks in a pre-industrial culture; hunting, gathering, fishing, finding water, farming, all these require mobility. As resources and weather patterns change, longer range mobility may become necessary as well. Survival literally can depend on being mobile. In our modern industrial society, […]
Electric Mobility – Part 2
Electric Mobility is a broad category of things that move around using electric motors. Forklifts, wheelchairs, trolling motors for small boats, golf carts are some of the types of mobility systems that have been around for many years. One of the major mobility systems that you might not know about that is electric are the […]
Electric Mobility
Electric powered transportation takes many forms. The race among auto makers to produce a high volume, cost effective consumer vehicle is one of the hottest topics in the tech world. Among the more novel applications is water based transportation, boats, ferries, small and large boats of all kinds are being demonstrated using electric and hybrid […]
PLCs, PACs and IPCs
It seems an unlikely thing that after decades of control technology advancements we are still confused about the nature of PLCs, PACs and IPCs. In one of the preeminent control magazines this month’s issue is consumed with the subject and presents multiple perspectives on the selection process and merits of the respective vendors. There are […]
The New Product Challenge
Large industrial product suppliers sell what they make. These companies became large because they provided equipment that many customers found useful. But as manufacturers become large, they also become bureaucratic. Ironically, new product development, the source of the company’s success in the beginning, becomes overwhelmed with complexity that causes lead time to market to […]
Energy Cost in Mechatronics
The field of mechatronics exists as a complex collection of engineering disciplines that has boundary conditions which are set by the mechanical load or work that is required. Everything you need to know about the final solution is a result of properly understanding the work that is required and investigating all the related issues that […]
Innovation and Monetization
The recent trend is use “monetize” as if it were a verb. Thus, we hear catch phrases like; “monetize new technology”. It is a term that has been coined to obscure the simple nature of making money from a new idea. People use it either to hide the simplicity of the fact that we all […]
Innovation
Innovation as a verb is the action of transforming a process or product from its current state to something new and improved. Processes, methodologies, products can all be the subject of innovation. Anyone living in the industrialized nations is very aware of innovation in everyday life. The electric motor industry constantly, if slowly, innovates to […]
Technology and Marketing
Marketing is defined as the communication of value to customers. It is intended to make us aware of products and convince of our need for the product. Sales is the fulfillment of that need. Technology is the means by which scientific knowledge is used to organize matter and energy to serve useful purposes. The means […]
Control
Control technology, like the computer technology that it comes from, is becoming more and more physically transparent. How it is deployed for use is more a function of it’s packaging than of the technology itself. 60 Years ago, early computing hardware required it’s own building, air conditioning, programming and maintenance crew. Today, electronics for control […]
Magnetism
People have been using magnets for a long time. The first written mention is in correspondence between Aristotle and Thales of Miletus in 600 BC . Magnets known as lodestones, a naturally occurring iron oxide magnet, were known to the ancient Greeks in the city of Magnesia, possible accounting for the name. Magnets […]
Magnetics
It is said that Einstein began his inquiry into relativity as a teenager working in his father’s electric motor shop because the Maxwell and Gauss equations did not adequately explain the difference between a motor and a generator. Whew! If it took Einstein to explain the difference, where does that put the rest of us? […]