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The purpose of this study is to investigate the obstacles to mechatronics adoption in the construction industry from a Nigerian perspective. It aims to fill the knowledge gap by focusing on the specific challenges faced in developing countries, considering the unique contexts and constraints of the Nigerian construction industry.

The study used a comprehensive literature review to identify 26 obstacles to mechatronics adoption. These obstacles were used to develop a well-structured questionnaire, which was then distributed to construction professionals using Google Forms through purposive and snowball sampling techniques. The rankings obtained from the questionnaire responses were analyzed to determine the most significant obstacles.

The study revealed the top five most significant obstacles to mechatronics adoption in the Nigerian construction industry. These obstacles include high costs of operation and maintenance, resistance to adopting new technologies, a lack of standardized protocols, insufficient maintenance capabilities and a lack of government support. Factor analysis revealed five clusters of obstacles: technological-related factors, economic-related factors, capability-related factors, government-related factors and awareness-related factors.

Findings from this study have the potential to inform decision-making, drive policy changes and guide future research efforts aimed at promoting the widespread adoption of mechatronics technologies, ultimately leading to the transformation and improvement of the construction industry as a whole.

This study contributes to the field of mechatronics adoption in the construction industry by addressing the gap in research specific to developing countries such as Nigeria. By identifying and analyzing the obstacles from a Nigerian perspective, the study offers unique insights and original findings.

Mechatronics is a very important area of research in industrial applications. The purpose of this study is to find some of the most important components of the literature on this subject.

The analysis is based on the use of the database Compendex; it was searched in the broadest way for documents related to mechatronics. In addition, subject guides from libraries of universities with mechatronics programs were studied to find resources available in those areas.

The literature of mechatronics is extensive and multidisciplinary. Based on the results from Compendex, the following data were found: most productive authors, list of leading journals and conference proceedings, publishers and grant organizations, authors’ affiliations and other minor details. Based on the analysis of subject guides, the following types of resources were found: research databases, reference books and ebook collections.

Part of the analysis is based on a search performed in one technical database, Compendex; it was the database that generated the largest number of citations as compared to Inspec and the Web of Science. The results have a strong English language focus. It is possible that by using the results from multiple data bases, some additional sources could be obtained.

Mechatronics is a relatively new technological field comprising a number of scientific and engineering areas. The results obtained summarized a significant amount of bibliographic information.

The work is original; to the best of the authors’ knowledge, no other study has analyzed the literature on this subject.

The world is becoming digitised, and the construction industry is not left behind in the move. Buildings are getting advanced to the level of operating them electronically with little or no human interference. The implementation of technological practices into operations has produced many new products and provided ways of improving the efficiency of the products. A practical example is the application of robots being involved in the construction process. And these robotics are controlled by the use of mechatronics engineering through their artificial intelligence incorporated into their systems. This chapter examined the activities and involvement of mechatronics in construction, the different benefits to be derived from mechatronics applications and the uphill challenges it poses in construction projects.

Mechatronics, the art of combining robotics, computer control, and electronics, was the topic at the recent annual M²VIP conference (mechatronics and machine vision in practice) held at the University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Australia, 23‐25 September. This was the fourth conference in the series which originated in Toowoomba in 1994, followed by Hong Kong in 1995 and Portugal in 1996. Papers from all around the globe were presented showing varied aspects of research ranging from mechatronic education, sensor design, mobile legged robots, self learning systems, robots in manufacturing, through to novel applications of mechatronics in sport. Some of the more memorable articles for the author are highlighted including mechatronic education, sport mechatronic systems, almost‐human walking robots, and autonomous underwater surveillance submarines.

A flexible agile assembly system requires an open architecture integration environment that is mechatronic device and computer platform independent. An interactive environment allows the users to step through programs and acquire immediate feedback from the system and is most suitable for the development of mechatronic systems used on the shop floor. Ch, an embeddable C/C++ interpreter, was developed for mechatronic‐independent task‐level programming. An experimental mechatronic system with an IBM 7575 Robotic Arm and a National Instruments' motion control board has been developed to demonstrate the capabilities and the ease in integrating mechatronic devices in Ch, which is freely available for downloading.

The subject of the paper is the mechatronic design of a novel robotic hand, cassino-underactuated-multifinger-hand (Ca.U.M.Ha.), along with its prototype and the experimental analysis of its grasping of soft and rigid objects with different shapes, sizes and materials. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Ca.U.M.Ha. is designed with four identical underactuated fingers and an opposing thumb, all joined to a rigid palm and actuated by means of double-acting pneumatic cylinders. In particular, each underactuated finger with three phalanxes and one actuator is able to grasp cylindrical objects with different shapes and sizes, while the common electropneumatic operation of the four underactuated fingers gives an additional auto-adaptability to grasp objects with irregular shapes. Moreover, the actuating force control is allowed by a closed-loop pressure control within the pushing chambers of the pneumatic cylinders of the four underactuated fingers, because of a pair of two-way/two-position pulse-width-modulation (PWM) modulated pneumatic digital valves, which can also be operated under ON/OFF modes.

The grasping of soft and rigid objects with different shapes, sizes and materials is a very difficult task that requires a complex mechatronic design, as proposed and developed worldwide, while Ca.U.M.Ha. offers these performances through only a single ON/OFF or analogue signal.

Ca.U.M.Ha. could find several practical applications in industrial environments since it is characterized by a robust and low-cost mechatronic design, flexibility and easy control, which are based on the use of easy-running components.

Ca.U.M.Ha. shows a novel mechatronic design that is based on a robust mechanical design and an easy operation and control with high dexterity and reliability to perform a safe grasp of objects with different shapes, sizes and materials.

Mechatronics received close attention in October 1998, first at a day conference organized by the IEE looking at the Japanese experience, and then at a lecture on intelligent mechatronics. Japanese experience was looked at from the standpoint of Tom Salusbury, who had been Science and Technology Secretary at the British Embassy in Tokyo, and David Wilson, of Cambridge Consultants, who had been on two fact‐finding visits. These were followed by two speakers, Stephen King and Rick Burbridge, who worked for subsidiaries of Japanese companies, and Ian Ross, whose company, KeyMed, is closely associated with Olympus in Japan. Intelligent mechatronics was reviewed by the new chairman of IEE’s Control Division, Geoff Roberts.

This paper reports on the findings of first of its kind to examine motorbike’s chain transmission, focusing on chain lubrication and its effect on the temperature, efficiency and vibrations of the transmission. The novelty of the paper is to investigate holistically the lubrication effect on the transmission by comparing its dynamic performances under three different lubrication conditions: chain not lubricated at all, chain lubricated with a spray polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) addicted lube and chain lubricated with a mineral oil at every minute of the test.

A novel mechatronic test rig has been designed and manufactured using a thermocamera, a dynamometer and an accelerometer respectively. The rig enables a multi-parameter dynamic and real-time sensing investigation of any motorbike chain system by recording temperature, transmission's efficiency and vibrations for any tests by. An experimental investigation has been conducted by running a chain under three aforementioned lube conditions at different speeds with the purposes of: (A) measuring the effect that each lube condition has on three critical parameters: temperature, vibrations and the efficiency of the transmission, and (B) identify the best conditions for practical use.

Results showed that proper use of lubricant can increase the efficiency of the system, by an estimated average of 4.1% is desirable. Additionally, using a continuous lubrication with a mineral oil lubricant leads to better transmission compared to the use of the spray PTFE from the efficiency and thermal points of view.

This work presents an experimental investigation on the effect of two different kinds of lubrication form motorbike chain on transmission’s efficiency. The findings are still valid for different applications of chain transmission in dirty environments. Novelty of the paper is highlighted as follows: this is the first work scientifically investigating the importance of lubrication on chain in harsh environments, particularly of motorbike chain. The work reports a comprehensive lete set experiments and analysis of thermal and mechanical effect because of the presence of lubricant has never been shown. Three kinds of lubricants have been used, and show their distinctive effects which are separately highlighted.

Surgical robotics can be divided into two groups: specialized and versatile systems. Versatile systems can be used in different surgical applications, control architectures and operating room set‐ups, but often still based on the adaptation of industrial robots. Space consumption, safety and adequacy of industrial robots in the unstructured and crowded environment of an operating room and in close human robot interaction are at least questionable. The purpose of this paper is to describe the DLR MIRO, a new versatile lightweight robot for surgical applications.

The design approach of the DLR MIRO robot focuses on compact, slim and lightweight design to assist the surgeon directly at the operating table without interference. Significantly reduced accelerated masses (total weight 10 kg) enhance the safety of the system during close interaction with patient and user. Additionally, MIRO integrates torque‐sensing capabilities to enable close interaction with human beings in unstructured environments.

A payload of 30 N, optimized kinematics and workspace for surgery enable a broad range of possible applications. Offering position, torque and impedance control on Cartesian and joint level, the robot can be integrated easily into telepresence (e.g. endoscopic surgery), autonomous or soft robotics applications, with one or multiple arms.

This paper considers lightweight and compact design as important design issues in robotic assistance systems for surgery.