Mechatronics | |
---|---|
Primary technology of Tier N/A | |
Science | 1160 |
Requires | N/A |
Leads to | Astrodynamics |
Affinity |
None |
Buildings enabled | Crawler LEV Plant Optical Surgery |
Improvements enabled | None |
Satellites enabled | N/A |
Units enabled | N/A |
Notes |
Allows the LEV Plant and Optical Surgery buildings. Unlocks the Crawler Wonder. |
- "Machines can be journeymen to machine apprentices, as long as we are still the masters."
- Hutama, We are All Destined to Prosper
History[]
Mechatronics, developed in the early stages of the 21st Century, is an interdisciplinary, synergistic melding of electrical and computer engineering, telecommunications and control systems in mechanical design. Coupled with cybernetics – as colonial scientists did – it allows for advanced automation in “dumb” machines. Programmed in repetitive patterns free of expensive oversight, mechatronics allows for inexpensive, efficient automated production facilities of basic consumer items. Things like furnishings, clothing, hand tools … indeed, anything without elaborate moving parts … can be produced in large quantities with minimal human involvement. An offshoot of mechatronics is the field of bio-mechatronics, which seeks to integrate mechanical parts with a human body, usually in the form of removable items such as powered myoelectric prostheses or exoskeletons.