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Usually ships in 1-2 business days | | Only 1 left in stock, order soon! | | | Introduction to Mechatronics discusses the design of simpler, more economical, reliable and versatile sytems based on the principles of mechanics, electronics and computing. The book describes the historical development of mechatronic systems and provides a basic background for mechatronic systems engineering. The introductory topics on mechatronics are dealt with in the book and it will prove to be very useful for undergraduate and postgraduate students as well as practice engineers. Beginning with the basic concepts of mechatronic systems, the book provides a comprehensive coverage of topics including system modeling and analysis, application of microprocessors and microcontrollers in mechatronic systems, sensors and actuators in mechatronic systems, intelligent systems for accurate operation of mechatronic systems, and application of mechatronic systems in autotronics, bionics, and avionics. | | | |
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| | Product Details | | Author: | K.K. Appukuttan | | Paperback: | 416 pages | | Publisher: | Oxford University Press, USA | | Publication Date: | October 11, 2007 | | ISBN: | 0195687817 | | Package Length: | 9.4 inches | | Package Width: | 7.2 inches | | Package Height: | 0.9 inches | | Package Weight: | 1.1 pounds | | Average Customer Rating: |  based on 1 reviews |
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Sound foundation, troubled execution May 21, 2008
The kindest thing I can say about this book is that it's not entirely useless. The title is a slight misnomer, and I feel it would have been better titled "An Overview to Mechatronics" or "A Survey of Mechatronics," because it's closer to a collection of facts about most aspects of mechatronics than an in-depth introduction that the beginning student is expected to synthesize and internalize. The sentence structure is rapid-fire, factual, and disjointed, which makes it hard to see this as a narrative of any sort; it's more akin to reference material.
My foremost gripe is that the book is plagued with typos. I'm sure that some of this is due to the fact that the book was written, possibly edited (it really is difficult to tell if an editor was remotely involved with this project), and published in India. The lion's share of the typos are simple things like leaving out articles or connector words, which I'd like to pin down to a dialectic difference but I fear is just a case of sloppy revision. There are still many typos which are far less benign, however, from the confusing (electro-fluid-dynamics is inexplicably abbreviated as EHD, rather than using the more proper electrohydrodynamics or using the abbreviation EFD) to the slightly misinformed (CCD is called a "coupled charge device" on page 203 rather than "charge-coupled device") to the downright detrimental (page 166 declares "In servo applications a DC motor is required to reduce rapid acceleration from standstill" (sic) instead of what I think the author meant, which is "In servo applications a DC motor is required to *produce* rapid acceleration from *a* standstill". These errors aren't isolated, either: the book has no shortage of them.
Another almost equally damning thing about the book is its diagrams. On nearly every page is an illustration that looks like it was drawn in Microsoft Visio by a rote amateur with the misguided notion that shading effects are an appropriate substitute for clarity. Every diagram has the chunky, pseudo-3D look that you can see on the blockified Venn diagram in the book's excerpt above, and in chapters four and on it really is impossible to tell what each diagram is supposed to be representing unless the reader is already acquainted with the principle or object in question... in which case there isn't much use for this book, is there?
Lest this review seem too negative, there are things I liked about it. The arrangement is sensible and logical, tackling the many sub-fields of mechatronics in orderly turn. The end of each chapter contains illustrative examples that aid in understanding what came beforehand, followed by questions which do usually address whether the reader understands the content. However, when gleaning meaning from the preceding chapter is an uphill struggle full of grammatical and artistic obstacles, the questions can sometimes be more difficult than was perhaps intended.
The rating of one star is about right, if I look at my experiences with this book statistically: I did learn some things, although it wasn't easy, and I really would consider this book to be about 20% useful. Hence, one out of five stars.
This might be worth checking out from a library to supplement other material, but under no circumstances should one pay nearly $40 for this.
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