Includes bibliographical references and index

"After Uchino's introduction of a new terminology, 'Micromechatronics' in 1979 for describing the application area of 'piezoelectric actuators', the rapid advances in semiconductor chip technology have led to a new terminology MEMS (micro-electro-mechanical-system) or even NEMS (nano-electro-mechanicalsystem) to describe mainly thin film sensor/actuator devices, a narrower area of micromechatronics coverage. New technologies, product developments and commercialization are providing the necessity of this major revision. In particular, the progresses in high power transducers, loss mechanisms in smart materials, energy harvesting and computer simulations are significant"-- Provided by publisher