Getting a Head Start on Mechatronics

Increasingly, engineering educators see the value of teaching college students the multidisciplinary skills of mechatronics design. Many, however, are intimidated by the time and expense of creating new courses and laboratory experiments that help students grasp the essentials of this synergistic engineering approach.

Quanser, a Toronto firm specializing in systems for control design, is targeting that audience with modular hardware and software packages that help professors take the mystery out of mechatronics and control theory.

"Students don't say much when they see our equipment for the first time," says Quanser Chief Technology Officer Jacob Apkarian. "They start talking when they feel it," adds the former professor who founded the company in 1990 after discovering many schools lacked the tools to translate control into tangible concepts students could grasp.

Accent on Controls

Quanser's products focus especially on the control engineering aspect of mechatronics design. The company's turnkey control labs, for example, typically include software, control boards and power amplifiers, which provide the basis for more than 50 Quanser-designed experiments. These exercises range from basic servo units to highly complex systems that can be created by adding more modules. Software choices include National Instrument's LabVIEW, The MathWorks' Simulink and the company's own WinCon simulation package.

The key goal in these experiments is rapid design. Students can quickly understand the system, connect it together, drag and drop blocks in the software and tune the controller's parameters. Meanwhile, professors and lab instructors work with pre-written curriculum from Quanser and receive solution manuals, technical support and sample controllers created in either LabVIEW or Simulink software packages. Support for Maple sheets from Maplesoft for solving more complex dynamics & kinematics problems are also available.

The Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) is one of a growing number of schools worldwide that have contracted for Quanser's turnkey control labs. "We use MATLAB and Simulink extensively. As a result, incorporating the Quanser solution was a perfect fit to enhance our lab. And the experience in setting up the turnkey system has been extremely simple and straightforward," says Electrical Engineering Professor Hadi Sadat.

At Turkey's University of Selcuk, Assistant Professor Mete Kalyoncu has much the same reaction: "Everything is ready to research and teach. We don't struggle to combine the components for experimental devices we need."

Professor Dennis Bernstein of the University of Michigan's Aero-space Engineering Dept. also notes, "Quanser excels at developing research and educational systems that illuminate control concepts, advance learning and - most importantly - facilitate greater understanding and insight into control issues."

An Aid to Researchers

Besides educators, researchers rely on Quanser control solutions for implementing and evaluating feedback strategies, such as PID, LQG, H infinity, fuzzy, neural nets, adaptive and nonlinear controllers. Many of the company's newer products are designed for researchers in such burgeoning fields such as robotically assisted surgery. In late September, Quanser announced its participation in a new research partnership devoted to robotic surgery. Featuring Quanser's haptic control technology, the new research venture brings together Canadian Surgical Technology, Advanced Robotics (C-STAR) and the Ontario Centres of Excellence.

In the past, a major drawback in robot-assisted surgery was that the surgeon lost the all-important sense of touch. Quanser's haptic technology resolves this problem by using complex mathematical computer models to convey realistic sensory feelings back to the surgeon. "The need for medical robotic technology is growing exponentially and haptic-enhanced robotic surgical systems will become staples of the hospitals and operating rooms of the future," says Dr. Rajni Patel, director of Engineering at C-STAR.

Quanser CTO Apkarian says the company's haptic interface products are an example of higher-end mechatronics design. "By setting clear performance goals and systematically examining every component in the concept stage, we created a fantastically lightweight robot," he says. "The design eliminates undesirable factors such as friction, backlash and jitter, allowing for an incredible level of high-fidelity sensation."

This haptic interface equipment is already in several laboratories and research centers around the world, including McMaster University in Hamilton. "Quanser's haptic interface technology and its WinCon real-time control solution have been instrumental in our research progress by providing a remarkably efficient platform for experimental evaluation of research results," says McMaster researcher Shahin Sirouspour. "It is equally impressive to see that the same technology is being used in our undergraduate laboratories for medical robotics and controls education."

Others are using Quanser control solutions in customized applications. For example, Quanser is working with Manfredi Maggiore at the University of Toronto on a high-precision device, based on magnetic levitation, which can position an object placed on a moving platform in three degrees of freedom with high accuracy. "Magnetic levitation is an excellent technology because there is no contact, so there is no wear of components," says Maggiore.

Apkarian sees such applications as adding more fuel to the company's core business, products for teaching and research. The likely result? Even more growth for a company that has already doubled in size in the last four years.