Push, turn, slide, latch, halt: a few of the latest medical-equipment subsystems include servo...

The do-it-yourself engineer assigned to build a machine with a motion-control system could buy, assemble, and debug the components. And while the education provided by that process might be valuable, it's also likely to be a hard lesson in what not to do. A more efficient route is probably to purchase as many subsystems as possible and get those working as a team.

To minimize your frustration and slow the growth of gray hair, we've uncovered several subsystems aimed at medical equipment. The general trend is that these units are smaller and more capable than the ones t