The stakes of the mechatronics in research, training and industry : a practical example of a technical development policy in Haute-Savoie

The mechatronic technology was confined on the level of the aeronautic space and army R&D programs for ten years. It was established then in a parallel way in the engineering departments and the industrial research laboratories but still remained in a restricted core of specialists. Haute-Savoie, a French area located at the foot of the Mount Blanc launched at the start of the nineties a program for the development of the mechatronic in SME´s. No one is astonished here that industrial parks are named Mechatronics 1, 2 or 3 or that a mechatronic professional licence exists since many years. The network Thesame with the University of Savoy and the technical centers meet here all the conditions to help industry, research formation and engineering departments to exchange competences and the develop new products. But any pole of competences has to be building today at least at the European level. The goal of this article is to show with some pragmatic examples, the opportunities and the difficulties of an industrial and scientific development policy in mechatronics.