Advanced Mechatronics and MEMS Devices

Citation

Bi, Z. (2013), "Advanced Mechatronics and MEMS Devices", Assembly Automation, Vol. 33 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/aa.2013.03333baa.010

Advanced Mechatronics and MEMS Devices

Article Type: Book review From: Assembly Automation, Volume 33, Issue 2

Edited by Dan ZhangSpringer2013US$140249 pp.ISBN 978-1-4419-9985-6www.springer.com/engineering/book/978-1-4419-9984-9

This new book is edited by Dan Zhang, a renowned scholar and a National Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Canada Research Chair in Robotics and Automation. The book follows the style of a well-developed book series in the microsystems, which has been edited by Roger T. Howe and Antonio J. Ricco since 1998. Over 20 books have been published in this series. The main purpose of the book is to cover the fundamentals of microelectronic mechanical systems (MEMS) by presenting the most recent advances in mechatronics, MEMS and their applications. A challenge in editing such a book is to choose the most representative works with an appropriate breadth and depth for a small-size book; the editor has carefully selected the contributions from international scholars to represent some important progresses on major research issues in the field. Based on the review criteria of motivation, quality, reputations of authors, coverage, cost and readability, the objective of the book has been well achieved. It will be an ideal investment for readers to purchase this book. Readers can find fairly straight answers to the questions such as:

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  What are the fundamentals of MEMS?

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  Where are the promising applications of MEMS products?

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  How to design and model micro sensors, actuators, or other MEMS technologies and apply them in micro-robots and other micro-products?

The book consists of 12 chapters authored by 34 researchers from all over the world including Canada, USA, European, and China. The subjects of the contributions include literature reviews, nano-materials, new MEMS products, micro-fabrication, micro-assembly, micro-actuators and tools for operations, measurements, and controls. The strengths of the book are the introduction of new MEMS sensors and the applications of MEMS in micro-robotics. The book is very application-oriented. For example, the case studies include bi-state digital robots, flexure-based assembly platforms, tactile sensors and biomimetic flow sensors.

In comparison, most of the textbooks in microsystems are large-size but focus on theoretical fundamentals in a relatively narrow field of the authors’ interests. The advantages of this book are its balanced depth and breadth, compactness, vast resource of the cited references, and it’s up-to-date. It is an ideal reference book for engineers, researchers, and graduate students who are interested in mechatronics, MEMS technologies, and their applications. Specialists in mechatronics and MEMS can expand their researches in some new applications introduced in the book; graduate students will find the review papers and cited literatures are very useful to their background studies. In particular, the challenges and limitations have been discussed in the most of the chapters in their concerned topics. University researchers may find it as a great reference for their teaching in Mechatronics and MEMS and obtain new project ideas in the emerging MEMS areas.

Zhuming BiIndiana University – Purdue University Fort Wayne, Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA