Keynote addresses: Keynote speech I

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Mechatronic systems are good examples of engineering dynamic systems incorporating multiple physical domains. They will typically consist of several different types of interconnected components and elements, each component belonging to one or more domains, particularly, mechanical, electrical/electronic, fluid, and thermal domains. In view of dynamic coupling and interactions between components, an accurate design, integration, and development of a mechatronic system should consider the entire system concurrently, in an integrated manner, unlike in the traditional design methodologies which are single-criterion and sequential. Since dynamic modeling is key to proper design, simulation, control, and evaluation, the modeling of a mechatronic system should use as well an integrated or concurrent multi-domain approach, where all domains (mechanical, electrical, thermal, fluid etc.) are treated together. Furthermore, it is clearly advantages to use similar or analogous approaches to model devices in different domains. In other words, the modeling approach must be unified. The talk will first introduce the field of Mechatronics and highlight why integrated and unified approaches are desirable in the development of mechatronic systems. Then it will present some useful considerations of multi-domain modeling, as applicable in the design, development, control, and evaluation/simulation of mechatronic systems. Examples will be provided to justify the use of an integrated and unified approach of modeling in mechatronic systems. The approach of linear graphs will be presented as an appropriate graphical representation in the modeling analysis of a mechatronic system. In this context how the familiar techniques of Thevenin and Norton equivalent circuits may be extended to mechanical systems and converting a multi-domain model into an equivalent single-domain model will be illustrated.