The network

Our network is made up of stakeholders from all sectors that have an interest in developing mechatronics and its applications. The Mechatronics & Automation Cluster promotes technical exchange and creates regional value chains. Interlinking the mechatronic competence in industry and scientific facilities strengthens the Bavarian economy and increases the attractiveness of Bavaria as a business location. Our network is a platform and, at the same time, a forum for defining and realising measures which foment the progress of mechatronics and its adjoining disciplines.

Main activities

Mechatronics & Automation Cluster e.V. - Networking Innovations. The purpose of the network is to generate more growth through mechatronic innovations by interlinking resources and competencies in the areas of research and development, production, quality assurance and qualification. We support the use of mechatronic methods in development and production in order to increase resource efficiency and process and product quality. The network's main focus of activity is on intensifying the contacts between research and development institutions, enterprises and users. For this purpose, diverse events, such as cluster meetings and joint stands at trade fairs, and work in closely focused task groups and joint projects are among the activities offered in the task areas communication, transfer and qualification. Together with cluster members, relevant training and further education is offered or organised by the cluster itself.

The technological focus

Members of the Mechatronics & Automation Cluster contribute their know-how in such scientific fields as mechanics, electronics and informatics, thus guaranteeing the integrative character required by the discipline of mechatronics. The Cluster has performed essential basic work on industrial problems in over 40 projects, thus offering valuable support in the conception, development and production of mechatronic systems with the highest reliability and acceptable costs. The Cluster is concerned with mechatronic methods of development, production, and operation, mechatronic drives, robotics, micromechatronics and smart materials. The network's core competencies are product and production technologies, control and regulation algorithms, experimental verification, and virtual prototypes. In task groups, questions are discussed concerning resource-efficient production, man-machine interaction, micro-mechatronic system integration, and new sensor-actor materials and structures.

Highlights

"With the third-generation lightweight construction robot, developed in the Mechatronics & Automation Cluster network, we are approaching the limits of what is physically possible", says the cluster member and director of the Institute for Robotics and Mechatronics, Professor Gerd Hirzinger, referring in particular to the robot's nearly 1:1 ultimate load / weight ratio. Instead of mechanically rigid, heavy construction elements, it uses much lighter components - but with correspondingly lower flexural strength. In order to achieve the necessary accuracy of movement for positioning, each of the robot's "limbs" is equipped with an extensive set of sensors, integrated digital and analogue signal processors, robust onboard data processing circuits and its own power electronics. These features were developed, built and tested by various partners of the Mechatronics & Automation Cluster using concurrent engineering.