Journal of Scientific & Industrial Research Vol. 6 1 , November 2002, pp 927-939

Three Upcoming Interdisciplinary Technological Disciplines; Mechatronics,

Photonics and Computronics

N P Mahalik* and S K Lee

Department of Mechatronics K wangju Institute of Science and Technology I , Oryong-dong, Puk-gu, Kwangju, 500- 7 1 2, Korea

\ The technological education and research scenario, world over, is converging towards multi-discipline one. The . primary reason is being the fact that the next-generation technological designs will be of highly complex and inter­

interdisciplinary nature involving synergistic integration of many aspects of engineering knowledge base. This paper concentrates on describing the scope of three upcoming interdisciplinary technological disciplines such as mechatronics, photonics and computronics. The paper starts with introduction fol lowed by some descriptions on the trends in technological education. Next the scope of mechatronics, photonics and computronics has been enlightened. The names of some of the Institutes and Universities, providing education on these disciplines have been mentioned. Finally the paper briefly reviews the aspects of basic research activities within interdisciplinary domain.

Introduction

Modem education systems have become h ighly specialized in their approach to education. There are many societal, academic and professional reasons why this is so. The new curriculum aims to provide a challenging way to achieve balance and perspective by means of its interdisciplinary approach as it has many benefits for students, people and societyl . This innovative method would enhance, complement and support the traditional d isciplines while offering the benefits to important i ssues. It is perceived that today' s fiercely competitive market enforced the technical education system to rapidly establish interdisciplinary education to meet the industrial demands. Further, i t i s evident from the fact that without compromising the sanctity and potentiality of individual disciplines a strategy for synergistic integration of these individual disciplines has been called for. The way engineering mathematics has been filtered out from the general mathematics, analogously the subjects from the traditional disciplines have been filtered out in order to frame an interdisciplinary discipline. The education programs should be broad, innovative, and challenging and should enable the future engineers to seek better solutions to various complex technologies2.

* Author for correspondence Phone: +82-62-970-238212383 Fax: +82-62-970-2384, http://www.kjist.ac.kr

Trends in Technical Education

Worldwide technical education curriculum has been a reverse pyramid structure contrast to traditional teaching methodology, as depicted in Figure 1 . Ignoring the elliptical enclosures located at the bottom of the figure, one can d istinguish between the traditional and current curriculum scenarios, which are separated by the axis. The elliptical enclosures signify topical research areas within the technical domain . This figure shows how the original electrical and mechanical disciplines have given birth to new disciplines l ike electronics and production engineering, respectively, which further brought into being many mother branches over a period of time. The present scenario, however, is different as compared to recent past. The engineering disciplines are now dilating, instead of diverging, because of the requirement of interdisciplinary knowledge at the production place.

Why Interdisciplinary?

Technological design has become a high-risk built due to the lack of knowledge and experiences on interdisciplinary subjects and methods. The next­generation technological designs wil l be of highly complex and inter-interdisciplinary nature involving synergistic integration of mechatronics, photonics and computronics and communication

3. Technological

development and innovations would thus require s imultaneous knowledge of d iscrete fundamentals

928 J SCI IND RES VOL 61 NOVEMBER 2002

Electronics and Telecorrumm icat ion Electronics and In�rumentat ion Information Technology

R-research; ED-Eco-design; AT-Analytical Tool; VLSI-Very Large Scale Integration; PP-Parallel Processing; PT-Power Technology; IP-Image Processing; SC-Soft Computing; AI-Artificial Intelligence; SM-Smart Material; ORM-Operation Research and Management; CAD/CAM-Computer Aided Design/Manufacturing, M E-Microwave engg, ST-Space technology.

Figure 1- Convergence scenario of the technical disciplines

10= Engineers w ith interdisc iplinary degrees WID = W ithout

1 00%

WID ID

Figure 2 - A n increase o f industry' s productivity o f 40% with and without engineers having interdisciplinary degree

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MAHALIK & LEE: MECHATRONICS, PHOTONICS & COMPUTRONICS 929

already developed ti l l date. Synergistic integration i s nothing but a logic based integration being rational as the basis since combined action and cooperation increases the effectiveness and productivity. Figure 2 shows how productivity of an industry increases up to 40 per cent in the event of employing engineers with interdisciplinary degrees at the basic level.

In the context of productivity, an example can be pondered. If a simple constant Vlf principle based induction motor is to be designed based on conventional approach, fi ve types of engineers would be immediately necessary; mechanical engineers would design the mechan ical structure since they know how the material responds to vibration, thermal effects, and others, only electrical engineers know how to design the windings conforming to IEEE standards, electronic engineer would design the instrumentation part of the motor since the design of high sensit ive optical encoders and other sensory devices is of paramount i mportance, control engineer wi l l control the speed using Vlf principle s ince they know better about the stabi lity and control labi l i ty, communication engineer will come forward to suggest to use optical fibre within this machine in order to overcome factory floor interference, bandwidth l i mitations and safety regulations, and final ly computer engineer would interface the long awaited machine to be monitored and controlled remotely . Many people wil l not agree with the above analysis s ince the example i s considered to be a s imple one ( i t i s not really a s imple example ! ) . However, if one takes examples of designing space shuttles, industrial machines, automobi le engines, robots, semI­autonomous machineries, air crafts, other machineries ( l ifts, cranes) and so on to be used for modern society the real question as to how the multi-discipl inary knowledge plays paramount i mportance could be understood.

Mechatronics

Mechatronics, although stil l a relatively new term when compared with many of the traditional engineering disciplines, now appears firmly establ i shed. Individuals, industries and Universities around the world are now using the term freely, in the understanding that it has an international currenc/. It has been defined as, the synergistic integration of

mechanical engineering with electronics and intelligent control algorithms in the design and

manufacture of products process5. As perceived, ten

technical areas are classified under mechatronic discipl ine. They are modeling and design, system integration, actuators and sensors, intell igent control, robotics, manufacturing, motion control, vibration and noise control, micro devices and automotive systems.

The word mechatronics has come from Japan in the late 1 970s to describe the philosophy they adopted in designing subsystems of electro­mechanical products. Since those early days there have been major advances in both technology and methods that has become available to the manufacturing industries. During early days mechatronics products were under primary level . This level encompasses devices, which integrate electric signaling with mechanical action at the basic control level. Electricall y controlled fluid valve, relay switches are the examples. Secondary level mechatronics integrates microelectronics into the electrical ly controlled onloff devices. Sometimes these devices are stand-alone, e g, cassette tape player. Next level enhances the quality in terms of sophistication by incorporating feedback functions into the control strategy. Many people call these systems as smart devices. An electrical motor used for actuation purpose in the industrial robot is under this category. Intell igent control attracted mechatronics6-s. Modern actuation means that, after all sensing and deci sion-making i s done, muscle i s needed to perform the decided action. Machine or plant control intel l igence is moving into the realm of human intel ligence, though in a l imited way. This level attempted to improve a step ahead in terms of introducing intel l igence (diagnostics and prognostics) capabili ty i nto the systems. At fourth level, mechatronics means many things for many people. Artificial Neural Network, Fuzzy Logic that try to capture some of the intellectual capabil ities of the highly trained and intell igent human operator. As observed the subject of mechatronics i s enormous in magnitude9. Ideally it combines mechanical, electrical and software engineering, communication, control and artificial intell igence. Background figures about intel l igent machines and their dominant functional subsystems, perception, cognition and execution have been understood along with the overview of the concept of architecture and approaches to designing mechatronic product. Subsequent subjects are found common to all mechatronic programs under taught courses.

930 J SCI I N D RES VOL 61 NOVEM B ER 2002

Engineering mathematics , d ig i ta l e lectronic components and thei r behavior, mechanical components, measuring equipments, sensors, actuators, digital computer, theory of mechatronic systems, mechanics of control of robots, mode l i ng the systems, introduction to ANN, Fuzzy l ogic, real -t ime systems (t ightly-, hard-, cr itical -real-t ime systems) para l le l process ing, data acquis i t ion , knowledge/ intel l igence based machine contro l , design of robots, robot sensor and information system, programming of i ndustrial robots, prec i s ion devices, FMS, ClM, computer control systems, d istributed control systems, computerized control and manufacturing systems�, integrated computer technology', d igita l control networki ng systems, image process i ng, object oriented design/methodology/language, mechatron ic product design, servo-actuation and servo-control and rel iabi l i ty of mechatronic systems.

Research Areas of Mechatronics

The mechatroni c research program covers a wide range of mechatronics related subjects, which i nc lude Consumer and Industrial product

CONTROL

app l ications, novel components for mechatronic systems, sensors, actuators, cal i bration, measurement and i n spection, robotics , mobi le robotics, AGVs, wal k ing mach ines mode l i ng tools , v ision systems i n real -t ime contro \ . analys is and s imulation, manufacturing processes, machi nery, automot ive appl ications, text i le manufacture, a id to d i sabi l i ty, engi neering and appl ications, non-industria l appl ications such as agricul ture , medical , comput i ng methods, machine control software , aid to synergy such as fuzzy logic and genetic algorithms, MEMS, prec is ion mach in ing, cal i brat ion, measurement and inspection, micromechatronics, v ibration and noise contro l , sensing and control , design methodologies, embedded control systems, v i rtual real i ty, support i ng theory and last but not least mechatronics educat ion (Figure 3).

Institutes

At the moment, Mechatronics i s bei ng taught as a s ingular subj ect at a very few p laces at undergraduate and postgraduate level in India . It would be effectual i f the engineeri ng students within

Real-time, On-line, State sensing, feedback

Data storage and Management

Artificial intelligence

Figure 3-An overview of mechatronics discipline3

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MAHALIK & LEE: M EC HATRONICS. P HOTON ICS & COM PUTRON ICS 93 1

Some of the institute and Universities providing Mechatronics education are listed below: 1 Johannes Kepler University, Linz. 2 City Polytecnic of Hong Kong. 3 Twente University, Netherland

Austria Hong Kong

4 Katholieke University of Leuver. 5 I ndonesia. I ndonesean I nstitute of (j University of Waikato. New Zealand Belgium Technology

7 Sydney NSW, South Queensland. 8 Korea Advanced I nstitute of Sci & <) Birmingham University. Cranfield NSW Kensngton. University or Technology. Chung Man National University. De Montfort Uni versity. Tasmania. Cutin Yniversity or University. Kwangju I nstitute of Dundee Uni versity. Hu l l University. Technology, James Cook Science and Technology. Korea. King 's Col lege. London. Lancaster University. University or Uni versity. Leeds Uni versity. Melbourne. Austral ia. Loughborough Uni versity or Technology.

Manchester Metropolitan University. Middlesex Uni versity. Sussex University, Swansea Insti tute of HE, U K .

1 0 University of British Colomhia. 1 1 Pol i tecnico di T0I·ino. Italy 1 2 ETH Zurich, Switzerland Canada.

1 3 Technological University of 1 4 Almost a l l technical Un iversi ty . 1 5 KTH Stockholm, Sweden. Denmark. Denmark Japan

1 6 Technical University o f Helesinki , 1 7 Stanford University. Rensselaer. 1 8 Bosphorous University. M ET Uni versity. Tempere Uni versity. Oulu Ohio State University, Un iversity of Bagazici University. Turkey. University. Finland. Washington. Colorado State

University. Cal i fornia State Uni versity. Arizona State University. Georgia I nstitute of Technology. USA.

the engineering school were given the scope of learning thi s weighty subject. It is very appeal ing to engineering students to have some idea of new look of this d isc ip l i ne. Problems of the i ntegration of d ifferent technologies i nto a compatib le system are a l so i mportant. Spec ia l i zed opportunity at the postgraduate l evel should embody source of concepts and techniques in art ific ia l i ntel l igence which are appl icable i ll practical real s i tuation. It i s true that knowledge can be acquired both passi ve ly and actively, but mechatronics students should ripen the i r design ski l l s through act ive learn ing by performing challenging formidable experiments and completing assignments.

Photonics

The i mpact of photonic technology (optoelectronics) i n future commun ication systems i s considered t o b e s ignificant. The research act i vi t ies and discussions i n recent years on this frontier area of technology are of in tereseo. A l l -Optical (AO) communication systems are emerging. I t would provide the major e lement with in the worldwide development of the superhighway to faci l i tate new broadband services to people.

Market Growth

The market growth of i nformation and commun ication (I&C), automotive/aerospace, medical/l i fe science, power sectors, measurement and control i s shown in F igure 4.

It is apparent from Figure 4 that there ex i sts opportuni ty to improve infrastructure for the development of photonic systems, devices and components not only for I&C appl ications but other i ndustrial and consumer appl ications. S i nce the future communication systems w i l l be of AO, necessary measures/steps should be taken at an early stage of th is emerg ing technology. A lthough, Indian education and R & D research on photonics has found a p lace at the i nternational leve l , but i nfrastructure-w i se it is not adequate whi le looking i nto the same i n other countries . The way IT is growing a l l over India, and s ince the optical communication systems, devices and components p lay a major role i n i mp lement ing IT, the country has to start developing i nd igenous systems and components for use. Poi nt to be noted here is that a lthough India generates i ntel lectual s and possess immeasurable manpower but sti l l it procures technology backbones. In part icu lar, the computer i tse lf (ruM compatib le ! ) and associated tool s and

932 J SCI IND R ES VOL 61 NOVEMBER 2002

30 T M i l l i o n U S D M a rk e t g ro w th

25 T

1 9 9 6 20 T 2 0 0 1

1 5 T

1 0 T

5 T

O T

I&C AA M&L P T M & C

Figure 4-Market growth of I & C (ref 1 0)

systems such as OS (Microsoft ' s n-version !) , the Languages (Visual-, *, ** ! ) , etc are al l non­indigenous. It must develop technology without depending much on others. Similar s ituation should not be expected with regard to the development of AO for I&C systems. S ince the science infrastructure of the country is undoubtedly vast, and since photonics (to some extent) comes under this category, it is guaranteed that new ideas and techniques wi l l emerge as far as development of AO systems are concerned. Engineering and technological institutes must act as the catalyst for this process so that the country will be able to fulfi l l its gigantic requirements.

Photonics Research Areas

The researches in the field of photonics are multidisciplinary and topical. The present status of photonics is optoelectronics (The subject electronics may progressively get vanished as the semiconductor devices replaced the vacuum tubes). Research on photonics includes optical transrrusslon and interconnects, novel materials and device process technology, MEMS, switching, routing, local/wide/access area networks, advanced lasers, modulators, optical amplifiers, nonlinear optical devices, integrated photonics, advanced optical packaging, switches and photo-detectors, ultra/high­speed and wide-spectrum-range photonics, tera-hertz photonics, nano-photonics, photonic crystals and related technology. The main research activities fal l

into four categories such a s material development, behavior and system study, components development and regulation (LCA).

Global I&C systems are progressively switching over to AO systems due mainly to the fact that the traditional communication systems i nherit drawbacks i n terms of signal attenuation, power consumption, noise interference, life cycle cost of installation and maintenance, and of course due to overnight d isappearance of attractive traditional cables. The materials from which the components are fabricated have a significant role to play with regard to power consumption, e g, there is a big difference between Ge, Si, GaSs etc. as far as consumption of power is concerned. Although, the power consumption difference is very l i ttle among these tiny components but, if this small difference is multiplied with a bi ll ion (since more than a bi l l ion that number of components are working at a t ime) then, one can calculate the total amount of power that could be saved if all components with low power consumption are integrated instead. S imilar motivation can be initiated in terms of developing smart materials for AO systems. Research work on this topic (development of hetero-structure for optical communication) i s currently being carried out in many places; University of California is currently leading in this field! ! .

Anybody working in the areas of optoelectronics knows about the fact that there is a great loss around 1 400 nm wavelength and the effect

MAHALIK & LEE: M ECHATRONICS, PHOTONICS & COMPUTRON ICS 933

is due to ingress of H20 i nto the fibre from the atmosphere during heating, soften i ng and drawi ng stages. Is there any other intruders those are interfering during the manufacturing process ? Serious study on these aspects has to be carried out. A research team at Austral ian Nat ional Uni versi ty i s currently studying the cause, effect and compensation procedures on this topic. Behavior study may incl ude study of plastic optical fibre. i ntrinsic safety, optical storage, optical d i sp lay, equipments and systems, transmission systems, connection termi nation methods, (Gbit/s transmiss ion system, optical TDM, optical ATM, WDM transmiSSion, subcarrier multiplex i ng, code d iv is ion mult iple access, optical FDM, optical ampl i fication), system and network architectures (a l l -optical network topologies, passi ve optical networks, optical ampl i fiers, photonic switch configuration, optical ATM switch networks, optical wireless systems, core and access network i mplementations, network evolution ; scalabi l i ty and interoperabi ! i ty, network supervIs ion; security, rel iabi l i ty, network mode l i ng and performance i ssues). network control and management (advanced network protocols, network superv is ion, network management i ssues, network services prov ision, distributed and centra l i zed contro l , wavelength routing and conversions, schedu l ing and dynamic reconfigurations).

Components for AO systems are un l i mi ted. Starting from Laser to AO Chip (VLSI l ight manipulator) there could ex ist more than 500 equi valent components as 'compared to e lectronic systems. The major problem encountered to develop optical components is smoothness. H igh-prec ision machines implementing, a lthough not the nano­technology, but micro-technology must be bui l t prior to developing the AO components ( nano-technology conformant machine systems require i nterferometer based feedback systems) . Further, machines should be bui l t (should not be h i red) i n order to i nspect the AO components j ust manufactured. The physical inspection parameters may be outer d iameter, i nner diameter, roundness, concentric ity etc. This moti vates research and development of h igh-precis ion v ibration-proof electro-mechanical (mechatronic ?) machine systems i n first p lace. India, regrettably i s l agging behi nd i n this k ind of R & D a lthough every technological i nsti tute has an e lectrical and mechanical department. Theoretical study should be uti l i zed unt i l the final product is manufactured and it should not stop with s imu lat ion results alone. This i s

feas ible only i f the infrastructure i s adequate. The i ndustry, and technical inst itutes should come forward to start joi nt R & D on such machines not onl y dedicated t o develop optical components but for other appl ications as wel l (only Toshiba Inc. has reached at the l evel of manufacturing nano-technology based mach ines). Some of the AO components inc lude tunable Laser, TX, RX, LED, APD, PIN-FET receiver, DVD LD, CD, Ampl i fier, Attenuators, Routi ng, Switch, Cross connector, Waveguides, F ibre, MUX/ DEMUX, Lenses, Stabi l i sers, Beam/power Sp l i tters, S ingle wavelength OADM, two wavelength OADM, Wavelength l ocker, Mult i channel detector module , Bragg fibre grating filter, Optical passive components such as connector, i solator, fi l ter, coupler, col l i mator, c ircu lator, in tegrated swi tch array, etc. Besides development, accessories, packagi ng and i nterfacing of optical components i s also considered as a greater chal lenge. The i nterfacing and packaging should be i mmune to many parameters as obvious. The accessories are optical tables, bread boards, v ibrat ion i solators, holders, mount, j ack, base, trans lat ion stages, screw kits , tool k its, d iaphragms, p inhole, 45 degree min'or holder, R-rod, c lamp, dry oven, bum-in room, thread adapter, rai ls , rotation stage, support post, scale stand, ' 1 I f 1 �- 1 6 tI t p at orm, etc - .

Standards and regulat ion are to be met whi le designing the new systems and technology. Intrinsic Safety (IS, a standard) and environmental concerns are two i mportant factors, which need considerable attention i n order to cater to soci etal need. In other words consumer pressure, legislation, standards, the need to mai ntain competit ive advantage and the desire to be a good corporate c i t izen have forced designers and manufacturers to consider the environmental i mpact of their products. The future generations should not be l oaded wi th the bul k of waste products produced every moment. Green environment must be sustained by i mp lementing LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) methodolog/7. LCA is a method for systematical l y assessi ng the environmental i mpact of a product right from the extract ion and processing of raw mater ia ls to manufacturing, transportation and d istribution, main tenance, recycl ing, reuse and fina l d isposal . The AO components must be recycled, reused and remanufactured (the 3-R concept) for greener environment. Therefore, research i n it iatives i n terms of: ( i ) Where to use the waste products once i ts present state i s over, ( i i) What part of the AO

934 J SCI I N D RES V OL 6 1 NOVE M B ER 2002

components are to re-cycled once i ts present state i s over, and ( i i i ) How to remanufacture another component (not necessari ly AO component) from the remain ing part. This is considered to be a serious topic .

Photonics Education

Optics has been impact ing on our dai ly l i ves. Widespread optics education i s a must. Presently more than hundred companies and seventy societies around the world are supporti ng optics and photonics education, which wi I I provide trained personnel for 2 1 st century industry/societ/4. It i s worth noting that more that fifty companies, d irectl y or indirectly, are acti ng as the sponsors to the photon ics education in the Imperial Col lege London. Some of the educational i nst itutes and un iversities providing photonics education at the undergraduate and graduate level are l i sted below. The authors point out that the photonics education should now be taught at the undergraduate leve l . Even in the general science streams, l i ke DCA, BCA, etc . are being taught.

Subjects which are being tought at the in ternational l evel are (not i n any order) information and telecommunication, l asers, fibre-optic, optical design, beam optics, i maging, advanced optical communication, optical measurement and devices, e lectromagnetic opt ics , polarization and crystal optics, guided-wave optics, resonator optics, statistical opt ics , photons 111 semiconductors, radiometry, detection of optical radiation, fundamentals of non l i near optics, h i gh capac i ty optical transmission, optical materia ls , optics and laser physics, sate l l ite commu nications, s ignal process111g, networks, mobi le and w ireless communications, photon optics, microwave theory and techn iques, review of e lectromagnetic theory and propagat ion of l i ght , polarization and crystal optics, wave-guide theory and fibers, wave optics , optical fibre sensor, d iffractive optics , advanced l asers, optical displays, optoe lectronics components, biomedical optics , design and fabrication, epitaxia l growth and photonic structures :

Cochin university of science and technology, l I T Delhi, and M adras in India.

2 A l amba Agricultural and Mechnical University, Southeastern Institute of Technology, University of Alamba in Huntsvil le. Arizona state University, University of Arizona, University of Arkansas at Fayettevi l le Physics. University of Arkansas. University of Arkansas at Little rock, Cal i firnic Polytechnic State University, Cali fornia State University at Ful lerton, Cal ifornia State University Northridge. San Diego State University, San Jose State

Univcrsity, Sonoma State University. Stanford University, University of Cal i fornia at Santa Barbara, Uni versity o f Southern Cal i fornia. Colorado State Uni versity. University of Colorado at Boul der, University of Northern Colorado, Wesleyan University, Georgetown University. University of Central Florida. University of Florida, Boise State University. I l l i nois Institute of Technology, Purdue Uni versity, Rose-hulman Institute of Technology. University of Lousivi l le. Johns Hopkins University. The Johns Hopl ins University Whiting School of Engineering. University of Maryland B altimore County. Boston University. M assachusetts Institute of Science and Technology. Northeastern University, Tufts University. University of M assachusetes at Lowel l . University of M ichigan, SI. Cloud SI . University, University of Mi ssouri (Columbia, Rolla). M ontana State University. University of Nevada at Las Vegas, New Jersy Institute of Technology. Princeton University, Rutgers University. Stevens Insti tute of Technology, New Mexico State Uni versity. Uni versity of New Mexico, Alfred University. B i nghmton University, City College of New York. City Univer�ity of New York. Cornel l Uni versity, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Rochester Institute Technology, University of Rochester, University of North Carol ina. North Dakota state University, Air Force Institute of Technology, Bowling Green University Center for Photochemical Science, Bowl i ng State Uni versity, The Ohi o State University, University of Dayton. Oklahoma State University, University of Celtral Oklahoma, Oregon Institute of Technology, Oregon State University. Portland State University. Carnegie M el lon University. Lehigh University, University of Pittsburgh. South Dakota State University. Fisk University. University of Texas (EI Paso. Arl ington), University of Utah. University of V i rginia. V i rginia Technology. Washington State University, West V i rginia University. Yuba community college, Front Range Col l ege, Three R i ver Col lege. V incennes University. Indian H i l l s Community College. M o nroe Col lege, Queensborough Community College. Rochester Insti tute of Technology. Central Carol ina Community College. North Central Technical College. USA.

3 State Engineering university. Armenia. 4 University of Adelaide. University of Melbourne. University

of Sydney, V ictoria University. Australia. 5 University de Liege. University Gent Ghent, University of

Brussel , Belgium. 6 University Pernambuco, Brazi l . 7 CEGPE d e la Pocatiere. Dalhousie university. Laval

Uni versity. University of Toronto. University of Waterloo. Canada.

8 Nanjing University of Science & Technology. Nankai University. Shenyang University of Technology. Soochow University. Tianj i n University. Tsinghua Uni versity. China.

9 Palacky University, Czech. 1 0 Aalborg University, Technical University, Denmark. I I Institu d' Optique Theorique et Appl iquee. I N PG. UJM.

France. 1 2 Aachen University o f Technology. F H M unster University

of Appl ied Science. I nstitute Fur Mess & R egel ungstechnik. Stuttgrat University. Technical University Berli n Insti tute of Optics. Technische Universitat Dresden, University of

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MAHALIK & LEE: M EC HATRONICS, PHOTONICS & COMPUTRONICS 935

Applied Science, University of Oldenburg. University of Stuttgrat. Germany.

1 3 Budapest University of Technology, University o f Szeged, University Veszprem. H ungary.

1 4 Natinal University o f I reland, Queens University o f Belfast, Ireland.

I S Ben Gurion University o f Negev Electro-Optic Engg. Ben­Burion University of Negev Physics, Jerusalem College of Technology. Technion Israel Institute o f Technology. Weizmann Institute of Science. Israel.

1 6 University di Firenze, Italy. 1 7 Kanazawa University, Kansai University, K itasato

University, Nagoya University, University of Hamamatsu. Japan.

1 8 Korea Advanced Institute o f Science and Technology. 1 9 Kuwait Inst. O f Scientific research, Kuwait. 20 Benemerita University Autonoma depuebla, Centro de

investigaciones en optica. Mexico. 2 1 Delft University of Technology. University of Twente,

Netherland. 22 Pontificia Universidad Catol ica del, Peru. 23 W arsaw University. Warsaw University of Technology.

Poland. 24 Politenica University of Bucharest, Chernyshevsky S aratov

State University, Moscow Bauman State Technical University. M . V . Lomonosov Moscow State University, Petrozavodsk State University, Saint Petersburg State Institute of Fine Mechanics and Optics, Samara State Aerospace University, Russia.

25 Nanyang Technological University, S ingapore. 26 Escola University d'optica I optometria de terrassa,

U ni versity de M ursia, University de Salamanca, U n iversity de Valencia, University of Sevil le, Spai n .

27 Lulia University o f Technology, The Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden.

28 University of Bern, University of Neuchatel, Switzerland. 29 Chung Yuan Christian University, National Central

University, National Tsing H u a University, Yuan Ze University, Taiwan.

30 Chernivtsi N ational University, Kyiv Shevchenko National University, National Technical University of Ukraine, Ukraine.

3 1 Aston University, BruneI U n iversity, Cranfield University, Heriot Watt University, ICSTM, University College London, University of Northumbria at NewCastle, University of Southmpton, University of St . Andrews, University of Sratchdyde. U K .

Computronics

The technological education on computronics has not yet emerged. However, many computer hardware and software producer companies are using the term in order to attract their customers ' 8 . Computronics should not be considered as the synonym of CSE (Computer Science and

Engineering), but it has some role to play in future. As obvious, computronics within the computing world takes account of hardware, software, methodology, optimization, standardization, design of Application Specific Analytical Engine (ASAE), miniaturization, embedment features and multi­system interfacings.

A simple computer is bui l t using more than 2000 types of hardware parts (mechanical, electrical, electronic, magnetic and so on) . There exist more than 1 000 types of computers for various appl ications. Even for a specific application there are many standards. Take the example of industrial computers. There are more than 20 industrial computers conforming to different standards (e g, CompactPCI, PC- 1 04 and so on), being used for automation and control appl ications . Other applications of computers are well understood by many. Now, one can estimate how many types of hardware parts are real ly dealt with. There i s no standardized way of dealing with these factors. Because of this standardization issue alone the cost of a computer is l O-times that of its real estimated price and people are happy that the price of electronic items (computer) are decreasing very fast compared to others (say, car). The reason is nothing but the standardization factor. Day by day the companies manufacturing computer hardware (irrespective of electronic or mechanical components) are converging for unique solutions, however, the rate of convergence is slow. The s ituation is same with regard to software, methodology, optimization, miniaturization, embedment and interfacing issues. If there would have been a technological discipline in the name of computronics, the situation could have been much better.

The main subjects for computronics discipline in abstract form would be, digital circuits, photonics, basic mechatronics, information technology, model ing language, hardware, software, firmware, embedded system, optimization, h igh level-very high level languages, computational mathematics, inference mechani sm, virtual reality, co-operative systems, ASAE, design, VVLSI, peripheral interfacings, super-computers, security, AI, model ing, soft computing, Image processmg, parallel processing, ANN, cellular computing, plasma technology, management/maintenance/servicing and applications.

936 J SCI I N D RES VOL 61 NOVEMBER 2002

methodo logy

optimizat ion

software ASA E

hardware

miniaturization

Figure :i-Scope of compulronics

Broader Areas of }<'undamental but Cooperative

Research

Fundamental research initiat ives within technology domain can be categorized under fifteen groups; namely, engineering analysis and synthesis, biotechnology, chemical fusion, computational methods, environment, i ndustrial mathematics, infrastructure and packaging, management, material study, model ing, simulation, micro/nano-technology, quantum mechanics, signal processing and molecular systems. This section, describes some of the thrust areas of research under the above fundamental subjects. In Figure L 'R' impl ies low-level academic research within i nstitutions. Low-level research is not fundamental research and usually can'ied out by the undergraduate and postgraduate students during their project works. The el l iptical enclosures highlight the thrust areas of basic and fundamental research, however there exist interactions between them depending upon engineering applications. Table 1 shows a comprehensive l ist of technological research areas.

ST: Space technology i nc ludes scient ific observations, i n or from space, and assoc iated technologies having space and/or terrestrial app l ications. The research i s conducted on technologies leading to sate l l i te components and systems (robotics, materia ls , smart structures, sensors and control systems), space science and exploration, micro-gravi ty sciences, human physiology and behavior i n a space environment, remote sensmg systems, environment management etc.

ME: The microwave engineering research act iV i t ies inc lude acti ve and pass ive devices, properties of materials and e lectromagnetic model i ng \ and c i rcuit s imulation, radar-based systems for , atmospheric probing, design and measurements, integrated optoelectron ics, i ndustrial appl ications, w i reless system, antennas and propagation , behavior of e lectric and magnet ic fields and the ir sources in a spec i fic env ironment, and most recently computational e lectromagnetics, etc .

CAD: Bes ides CAD' s appl ications wi th in the general areas of engi neering (e g tool manufacturing, VLSI des ign, GUI etc . ) i ts applications are now found in medical i mage processing as wel l . S i nce the i mages of internal parts of a human being or an an i mal is to be produced very accurately for proper d iagnostics , handful number of soph i st icated "'-algorithms are bei ng developed in recent years.

CAM/CIM: CAM and CIM (Computer Integrated M anufacturing) are the two major research areas with in the manufacturing environment. Starti ng from system leve l management to the factory floor control archi tecture of a p lant, the role of CAM and ClM is v i tal .

VR: Appl i cations of v i rtua l real i ty are main ly � -

found i n the fi led of enterta inment, computer games, s imulat ion study, i ndustry, etc. Present VR conformant research topic includes v i rtual un iversity, v i rtual soc iety, v irtual medica l , v i rtual p layground, v i rtual world ( ! ), etc .

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MAHALlK & LEE: M ECHATRONICS, PHOTONICS & COM PUTRONICS 937

AI: Artificial intel l igence is the area of science mainly focusing on creating entities that corresponds to behaviors that humans consider intel ligent. Although, the abil i ty to create inte l ligent entities has intrigued humans since ancient times, but today with the advent of tools and platforms, the analytical redundancy, and 60 y research into AI techniques, the dream of AI is becoming a real ity. Researchers and developers are creating systems which can mimic human thoughts, understand speech, beat the best human chess player, and accomplishing countless other feats, never before possible. Soft computing, although a part of AI but the researchers from general

- science discipline take it i n a different way.

SC: Soft computing refers to an ensemble of analytical methods, which include fuzzy, logic-based systems, neural network-based systems, genetic algorithms, evolutionary computation, probabil istic reasoning (PR), knowledge representation formalisms for complex uncertainties, such as Bayesian analysis, evidence theory and random set-based modeling for shape analysis, aimed towards developing intelligent systems. It differs from hard computing in that it i s tolerant of imprecision, uncertainty and partial truth. In effect, the role model for soft computing is the human mind. Applications of SC are found in multimedia, pattern recognition and matching, image processing and many others.

IP: Image processing using digital technique is a major research topic. Images originating from various resources are to be modeled using soft computing tools. Wherever necessary, transformation techniques (spine, wavelet, etc) are also being adhered into the processing algorithm for smoothness and optimization. IP is a challenging area of research and its outcome has been applied in almost all sectors of human life including military, agriculture, banking, security, computer game, communication, industrial and manufacturing sectors, etc.

PT: POWer technology is one of the foremost energy management discipline providing engineering and technical services in every aspect of power plant development and operati on . The research activities within power technology include, conservation of electrical power, incipient fault detection, application of AIN and other relevant analytical tools for optimization in the context of distribution, design, architecture etc. The activities concentrate on environmental compliant efficient and effective technology for the power plants. The other topics

include noise prediction, monitoring of power qual ity, advanced turbine design, health monitoring of rotating machinery, component life predictions, and selection of materials in support of structural integrity.

PP: The rapid advance of parallel processing technology has now made it possible to build parallel computing systems. Research includes high­performance to shared-memory multiprocessors which present both opportunities and challenges to intensive applications such as weather forecasting system, large database, space craft navigation, and so on . There has been active research and development work as far as software and hardware in paral lel and distributed technology is concerned.

VLSI: Ongoing research address issues in parallel computer architecture, parallel computer firmware, intra-connection networks, special purpose processor design, high speed electrical signaling, noise-immunity, material development, capping/insulation layers, etc. The VLSI design and research activities thus mainly dedicated to design of embedded system, RISC, CISC, smart memories, high speed signaling and methods for applying VLSI technology to information processing problems.

ORM: Research on ORM throws lights on proper management of resources, manpower, inventory, and last but not least the time. A substantial number of researchers are now looking for the formation of smart materials for technological need. Smart materials are those materials, which can be used for the development and design of next generation systems.

Conclusion

Experience always has been a dominant factor in every field. The first author of the paper has been act ively involved with many interdisciplinary programs, occurring at various places of the world, since twelve years. Therefore, the motivation comes from the experiences and knowledge gathered so far. This paper concentrates on describing the scope of three upcoming interdisciplinary technological disciplines such as mechatronics, photonics and computronics. The paper starts with introduction fol lowed by some descriptions on the trends in technological education and research.

Acknowledgements

The work is supported by Brain Korea 2 1 project funded b y the Ministry of Education. The

938

Acoustics. speech " ' ;U signal processing

Advances i n electronics packaging

Algorithms theory. di screte mathematics Applications of computers to business Artificial i ntel l igence technology Artificial neural networks

Autonomous i ntel l igent systems B io-informatics B iomedical optics

Chemical scnsors Coding algorithms and cOITcclion Computational & cognit ivc mouels Computational tlu id dynamics Computer games

Computer vis ion and pattern recogni tion Control technologies with industrial computers Cryptology Dependable computing Di fferential equations and dynamical systems Digital cities and uni versity Digital l ibraries Distributed computing Dynamical systcms and modcl ing Electronic design automation Environmental health Evolution and learn ing

J SCI I N D R ES VOL 6 1 NOV EMBER 2002

Table I -Research areas

Evolvable systems (biology to hardware)

Experimental mechanics

Fabrication technology Fracture Fuzzy systems Geometric model ing and processing

Graphics. ani mation and applications Hybrid intel l i gent systems I ndustrial . appl ied. interdiscipl inary and computational mathematics I n formation technology Intel l igent agent technology I ntel l igent and holonic manu facturing Inte l l igent transport systems Interconnections among codes. designs. graphs and molecular hiology Inverse problems Languagc processing

Laser technology and spcctroscopy Li fe cycle assessment M agnetic propert ies

Materials processing M aterials science and technology M athematics and model ing Mechatronics. micro mechatronics M icroelectromechanical systems Mobile computing Mobile computing systems and formal methods

Mult i-spectral i mage processing

ano-computing technology, nano­engineering Optical M EMS Optical storage technology Optoelectronics and microelectronics Paral le l an:hitectures. algori thms. and networks Particle technology Productivity Quantum i n formation technology

Radar Robotics and mobi le rohotics Satel l i te communications Semiconductor devices Sensor technology

S mart materials . structures, and systcms Software qual i ty and rel iabi l ity

Software technology Sol id state devices and materials Systems and control

Telecommun ication & satel l itc Virtual real ity and environment VVLSI & microelectronics and ASIC Wavelet analysis and its appl ications Web i nte l l igence

authors also acknowledge Sambalpur Un iversi ty and University Col lege of Engineering, B urla, Orissa, for providing opportunity for this program.

5 Berardin is L A, Mechatronics: a new design strategy. IEt:E Trans Machatmll, 62 (8) ( 1 990).

6 Mahal i k , N P & Ermolov E, Mechatmnic desigll cOllcept ill lIlobile robotics, Technical Report, Moscow Statc

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