A friend of mine finally got delivery of a Tesla Roadster. This prompted discussion of the drive train and the fact that Tesla has had to go from two speed transmissions which were failing to a transmissionless drive train. The ultimate mechatronic challenge, the electric car, is also a challenger in terms of the precise […]
Mechatronic Top Ten – Hard Disk Drives
One of the mechatronic Top Ten applications has to be the hard disk drive. Strangely, it is not an application that you hear much about. That’s probably because unless you work on hard disk drive design, you pretty much take for granted that little black box that stores all your information. So the group that […]
Force Control Allows Robots to “Feel”
Global robot manufacturers ABB and Kuka are developing technology they claim benefits aerospace production because it can deal with the fiddly jobs. Their robots have the flexibility to help build aircraft at high quality and low cost. Gary Taylor, Kuka’s aerospace sales manager, says: “Automation offers a raft of value-added benefits including better quality, fewer […]