Optimal multi-objective design for mechatronic systems

Mechatronics is an interdisciplinary branch that traditionally encompasses the knowledge and skills of mechanical engineering, electrical and electronic engineering, control and automation, and computer technology. Systems designed and developed in this interdisciplinary context operate under highly dynamic conditions with a high demand for precision and robustness. One of the significant advantages of this approach is its applicability to new and different areas. Some examples of these new applications and challenges are Eco-Mechatronics, Bio-Mechatronics, or cybernetic systems. The main challenge when designing mechatronic systems is integrating into a synergic combination of elements, especially when new concepts are incorporated. This Ph.D. thesis presents a Mechatronic Concurrent Design procedure to address multidisciplinary issues in Mechatronics systems that concurrently include traditional and new aspects. This approach considers multiple criteria and design variables such as mechanical aspects, control issues, and taskoriented features to formulate a concurrent design optimization problem that is solved using but not limited to heuristics. Furthermore, as an innovation, this procedure address all considered aspects in one step instead of multiple sequential stages. Finally, this work discusses the application of this procedure to three illustrative examples to show the procedure performed and the results show its capability.