Intelligent consumer products-past, present and future

The last 20 years have seen a major change in the design and operation of consumer products as well as the introduction of new products. The driving force behind each of these developments has been the increasing availability at reducing the real cost of electronics and associating processing power. This has enabled the introduction of higher levels of control and increased functionality into what were primarily mechanical systems and has also resulted in a range of totally new products which would not be achievable by any other means. The results of incorporating electronics and associated software has therefore been to produce a range of consumer products which are inherently ´mechatronic´ in nature, placing demands upon their designers to achieve high levels of integration between the electronic, mechanical and software elements in their construction. In order to understand the developments that have taken place as a result of the introduction of electronics, the development of a particular and common consumer product, namely the washing machine, is considered.<>