Mechatronics in Action s case-study approach provides the most effective means of illustrating how mechatronics can make products and systems more flexible, more responsive and possess higher levels of functionality than would otherwise be possible. The series of case studies serves to illustrate how a mechatronic approach has been used to achieve enhanced performance through the transfer of functionality from the mechanical domain to electronics and software.

Mechatronics in Action not only provides readers with access to a range of case studies, and the experts view of these, but also offers case studies in course design and development to support tutors in making the best and most effective use of the technical coverage provided. It provides, in an easily accessible form, a means of increasing the understanding of the mechatronic concept, while giving both students and tutors substantial technical insight into how this concept has been developed and used.

Get inside Japan's invisible behemoth to see the future of global business Good Risks is a fascinating insight into ORIX, a global giant whose business empire straddles the world, but which has managed to remain out of the media spotlight for half a century. Award winning author David Russell explains how this Japanese company has transcended its national identity to become a global player, and what that means for everyone else. In a series of one-on-one interviews with senior executives at ORIX companies around the world, readers gain a firsthand glimpse of the inner workings of this "invisible" corporate group that controls hundreds of billions of dollars. Interviews with the company President and Chairman in Tokyo provide rare insight into the thought leaders at the highest levels, and a contribution by the Chairman himself discusses the hard realities of globalization and the keys to success in the coming decade. The key concept that is lost in the Japan vs. China vs. US vs. EU battle is that the business landscape has changed drastically, making national boundaries anachronistic. Companies such as IBM, Disney, Apple, and Microsoft long ago stopped being "American" firms; they are global competitors that take advantage of their deep knowledge of the US markets, but have no special allegiance to the United States. This book argues that this is the future of all large-scale business, as already exemplified by ORIX. * Learn how one executive steered ORIX's meteoric rise from an unknown start-up to an unseen global giant * Explore the coming realities of the global business scene * Discover why HQ location will be little more than historical accident * See how ORIX impacts the Chinese, Indian, and American firms that follow its lead The business scene unfolding today is not "international" or "multinational", but an increasingly unified, global battleground. The rise of ORIX charts the future of business, and Good Risks provides the details and insights business leaders need to anticipate tomorrow's changes.

This book focuses on how the BOXES Methodology, which is based on the work of Donald Michie, is applied to ill-defined real-time control systems with minimal a priori knowledge of the system. The method is applied to a variety of systems including the familiar pole and cart. This second edition includes a new section that covers some further observations and thoughts, problems, and evolutionary extensions that the reader will find useful in their own implementation of the method. This second edition includes a new section on how to handle jittering about a system boundary which in turn causes replicated run times to become part of the learning mechanism. It also addresses the aging of data values using a forgetfulness factor that causes wrong values of merit to be calculated. Another question that is addressed is "Should a BOXES cell ever be considered fully trained and, if so, excluded from further dynamic updates". Finally, it expands on how system boundaries may be shifted using data from many runs using an evolutionary paradigm.

This book focuses on how the BOXES Methodology, which is based on the work of Donald Michie, is applied to ill-defined real-time control systems with minimal a priori knowledge of the system. The method is applied to a variety of systems including the familiar pole and cart. This second edition includes a new section that covers some further observations and thoughts, problems, and evolutionary extensions that the reader will find useful in their own implementation of the method. This second edition includes a new section on how to handle jittering about a system boundary which in turn causes replicated run times to become part of the learning mechanism. It also addresses the aging of data values using a forgetfulness factor that causes wrong values of merit to be calculated. Another question that is addressed is "Should a BOXES cell ever be considered fully trained and, if so, excluded from further dynamic updates". Finally, it expands on how system boundaries may be shifted using data from many runs using an evolutionary paradigm.