Mechatronics (or Mechanical and Electronics Engineering) is the synergistic combination of mechanical engineering, electronic engineering, control engineering, systems design engineering, and computer engineering to create useful products. The purpose of this interdisciplinary engineering field is the study of automata from an engineering perspective and serves the purposes of controlling advanced hybrid systems. The word itself is a combination of "mechanics" and "electronics".

Mechatronics is a concept which is debated extensively in academic environments. Many formal definitions are published (e.g. www.engr.colostate.edu/~dga/mechatronics/definitions.html) and each of them points one or several of explicit/implied features of the concept of mechatronics. Any physical artefact which functions to satisfy these a-priori features is considered to be a Mechatronic product.

However, the simplest and plain definition of mechatronic concept follows as the "Integration of Electronics and Software Technology into a Functional Mechanical Structure". This definition states the necessary conditions, but it does not imply the sufficiency, hence any physical product which encloses electronics and software technology within a mechanical structure need not to be mechatronic. The keyword here is the conceptual "INTEGRATION" of basic mechatronic components into a physical product, provided that the conceptual integration has been started at the very beginning of the design process.

The mechatronic concepts are defined formally and properly at the stage of problem definition, and applied all through the engineering design process at every stage/phase and at every decision making activity. This implies that the system is designed and optimized as a whole and not in sequential steps. By concentrating on a limited application area, a mechatronic designer should have enough domain specific knowledge to come to really advanced products.

Mechatronic design also implies team work. Specialists with a background in mechanical and electrical engineering, control and computer engineering should cooperate in a team, in all phases of the design, to come to a synergistic combination. Finally a good design philosophy is essential.

During its almost 40-year lifetime, the subject has evolved through a series of redenitions from the original concept of electrication of mechanisms to its current denition, which is based on the concept of synergy. That Mechatronics is the synergistic integration of mechanical engineering with electronics and intelligent computer control in the design and manufacturing of industrial products and processes by Harashima, Tomizuka and Fukuda, represents a milestone in this evolution. It was published in the first issue of the journal IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, where the editors presented it as a new denition of mechatronics.

A more concise definition is that, “Mechatronics is a technology which combines mechanics with electronics and information technology to form both functional interaction and spatial integration in components, modules, products and systems”. Mechatronics is centered on mechanics, electronics, control engineering, computing, molecular engineering (from nanochemistry and biology) which, combined, make possible the generation of simpler, more economical, reliable and versatile systems. The portmanteau "mechatronics" was coined by Mr.

Tetsuro Mori ("Toets") and Er. Jiveshwar Sharma ("Jove"), the senior engineers of the Japanese company Yaskawa, in 1969. Mechatronics may alternatively be referred to as "electromechanical systems" or less often as "control and automation engineering".

An industrial robot is a prime example of a mechatronics system; it includes aspects of electronics, mechanics and computing, so it can carry out its day to day jobs.

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