Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a technique that uses an electronic interface to remotely control or steer cockroaches. Alper Bozkurt , an assistant professor of electrical engineering at NC State, says “Our aim was to determine whether we could create a wireless biological interface with cockroaches, which are robust and able to infiltrate small spaces”.

Image stabilization is very important during filming in challenging conditions, such as a helicopter flight. Gyro stabilized camera mechatronic system allows to eliminate adverse picture motion during panning, tilting and rolling so that recorded video is smooth. These systems are of a high bandwidth design and rely on complex electronic sensors, actuators and motors to correct the base motion from affecting the camera. All of the systems utilize the electronic control servo loops, are extremely fast acting (high bandwidth).

In a Harvard robotics laboratory, inspired by the biology of a fly, robotic insect RoboBee achieves vertical takeoff, hovering, and steering. It is the world's smallest flying robotic insect and it has taken 12 years to get the robot into the air. The work was led by researchers at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering.

Have you ever wondered how the meat is processed? Automation technology effectively addresses to the global meat industry to increase yield from raw materials and eliminate waste. Automation equipment allow to enhance labour efficiency, reduce staff training requirements, eliminate many physically demanding tasks from the processing chain and improve product quality. One of the main problems is product variability.

Pinsetter was originally a person who manually reset bowling pins to their correct position, collects fallen pins, and returned bowling balls to players. Now, a pinsetter is a fully automated mechatronic system.

A Moulded Interconnect Device (MID) is a single construction unit, that consists of circuit traces embedded onto moulded thermoplastics to form electrical pathways and landings for surface mount components. Compared to 2-dimensional printed circuit boards or a flexible circuit wrap, MID technology offers a greater freedom of design and a miniaturization of electronic components (by reducing the number of required parts). As a result, weight and fitting space can be effectively reduced.

Kinetiq Teaching is a system to teach a robot by hand-guiding its arm through required trajectory. It was shown at the conference Automate 2013, that the system makes automated arc welding intuitive to welders and machinists and it enables them to easily set welding parameters with no in-depth knowledge of programming. This technology is actually under final stage of development.

The CRD 3-40 is the mechatronic system that enables to crack a combination lock by exploiting. It was built by Ross Aiken as the class group project for ECE453 - Embedded Microprocessor System Design at the University of Wisconsin - Madison.

An automated car parking system is a mechatronic system designed to transport and park cars automatically. The first semi-automated parking system was used in Paris, France in 1905 at the Garage Rue de Ponthieu (the car was transported to selected level using an internal elevator and the vehicle was parked by attendants). An automated storage and retrieval system for cars is a solution to cities' parking problems, such as the space wasting in a multi-story parking.

The underwater walking robot named Crabster CR200 is developed by researchers at the Korean Institute of Ocean Science and Technology (KIOST) . The task of the Crabster CR200 is to inspect the seabed structure and shipwrecks off the coast of Korea Peninsula. This summer the robot will explore wrecks despite the powerful surge of tidal current.

Veebot is a mechatronic venipuncture system that automatically finds a patient’s vein, inserts the needle, and performs a procedure. The goal of venipuncture process automation is to reduce errors and decrease venipuncture times. This saves hospitals and clinics money, reduces the risk of injury to practitioners, and improves comfort and care for patients.

6-axis industrial robots are commonly used in the manufacturing industry due to their flexibility, powerful programming software, payload capacities ranging from 5kg up to 1000kg and accuracy to 0.1mm or better. Here is a basic breakdown of how a standard 6-axis robot works. The way it rotates, how it is programmed, and the different types of tooling and grippers.

How a Car Engine Works infographic designed by Jacob O'Neal shows principle of operation of one of the most amazing machines we use on a daily basis. See the common layout of an engine: a four-stroke engine (also known as four-cycle), engine configurations, basic systems and elements that a gas engine needs to function (fuel injectors, air, oil, electrical and cooling systems). All elements are custom, from the Blender 3D models Jacob made to the resulting animated flat layout.

Autonomous Self-Reconfigurable Locomotive Robot: designed and built by Muhammad Hasan Shariq for BEng Mechanical Engineering Honours Project (2009-2010) at Heriot-Watt University, Dubai Campus.

Theodorus Gerardus Jozef "Theo" Jansen is a Dutch artist. Theo Jansen 's mechanism (named strandbeest - "beach animal") allows to perform walking motion. The advantage is that the required power of the engine used in the mechanism, must be sufficient to transfer only the legs (not transported elements). He invented that in 1991.

Do you sort M&Ms or Skittles by colour before eating them?  For example, eat all the yellow ones first, then the red ones, then the blue and so on. Brian Egenriether, an electrical engineer, decided to make a small machine that looked like an appliance, which could perform these tasks automatically. This mechatronics project took him about 5 weekends to make. The use of the machine is very simple: pour Skittles or M&Ms into it, push a button and have candies sorted. Let us look at the construction.

There are various applications of mechatronic solutions. One of them is an art. Korean media artist group JônPaSang made something special for Hyundai Motor Group pavilion at 2012 Yeosu EXPO exhibition. The whole project started on 1st March and finished on 30th April. It was only 2 months to make such a large project but as Yang Sookyun said,

A Ballbot (botball) is a mobile robot designed to balance itself on a single ball, both while in motion or staying in a place. We can say, that it is a "single wheel vehicle". The main characteristics of this kind of robots is that there’s one sole contact point to the ground. This means that the robot is inherently unstable. It’s like when you try to stand on a ball.

Your dream partner: is faithful, doesn't complain, is always efficient, is always in the mood for sex, is never tired, fulfills all the desires (sexual as well), is discreet and will tell nothing to anyone about it? Slowly these fantasies turn into reality.

Each novice designer may have a problem with obtaining 3D CAD models for their projects. Preparing models on your own is time consuming and often unnecessary. To save your time when choosing the components, check if the distributor or manufacturer does not offer on their websites available ready-made 3D CAD models to download. By downloading models directly from the manufacturer we can have a greater chance that the model reproduces 100% of the actual product.