Mechatronics

Future-oriented branch for intelligent products

The mechatronics branch – a fusion of machine construction, electronics and information technology – is a pulsating high-growth sector. Sooner or later, mechatronic systems will dominate engine management, safety and infotainment functions in automobiles. ABS (anti-lock brake system) is only one of many intelligent products encompassed in the field of mechatronics. However, mechatronics is not only an innovation driver in the automotive branch, but in many other industrial sectors as well. For example, mechatronic solutions have become indispensable to the consumer goods industry, and have been built into household devices or mobile telephones. In Austria, some 300 companies with 49,000 employees offering mechatronic systems achieved revenues exceeding EUR 9.6 billion in 2009.  

Tops in Europe. Regardless of whether it involves medical devices, tools, wood processing machines or the automotive sector, Austria has developed an outstanding know-how in the production of custom and special purpose machinery. One key reason is the intensive cooperation which has evolved between the scientific and business communities in the field of mechatronics: approximately 200 to 300 R&D specialists are available to companies. The mechatronics study program offered by Johannes Kepler University in Linz is the most popular course of studies at the Faculty for Natural Sciences and Engineering.