Optomechatronics: Challenges to smart integration of optical and mechatronic technologies with controllable and observable elements

Optical elements enhance the functionality of mechatronics and in many cases introduce entirely new capabilities. Likewise, mechatronic elements bring the same synergistic effects to optical systems. This technology is termed “Optomechatronics” or “Optomechatronic Technology.” This talk, with emphasis on importance of multi-disciplinary and multi-technology fusion, addresses the underlying concepts and features of the technology by analyzing a variety of practical optomechatronic systems such as optical storage systems, microscopes including AFM, micro-nano manipulation systems, MOEMS, adaptive imaging systems, laser printing systems, optical sensing and measurement systems, etc. The analysis decomposes a system into different functional units and identifies their functionalities required to generate desirable system performance. This analyzing process shows how the signals of optical and mechatronic elements are interacting together to produce the necessary functionalities and how such interaction can be achieved with the aids of controllable and observable elements. As an illustrative field, the later part of this talk focuses on an adaptive/controllable optical imaging which comprises control of imaging view direction, image distortion correction, selective imaging, image stabilization, image tracking, sensing and measurement, noise reduction, and so on.