Tribotronics


Tribotronics is an area of research that combines machine elements and electronic components to create active tribological systems. This is achieved through continuous monitoring and adjustment of tribosystems, resulting in increased machine efficiency and lifetime.

Definition

Tribotronics refers to the combined use of tribology and electronics to control tribological systems. Tribotronic systems are designed to improve efficiency, reliability and lifetime of machine elements by active control of tribosystem inputs, outputs and losses. This is in contrast to traditional tribological and mechatronic systems, where losses are seen as a function of system inputs rather than desired set-points. While the term was originally coined with a particular emphasis on the control of tribological losses, it is increasingly used to describe any active system that combines tribological and electronic components, irrespective of the process variables and set-points of the control loop.

Design of tribotronic systems

One way to design tribotronic systems is to build control loops around passive machine elements in order to create active machine elements. Relevant process variables of the control loop may include: