Before "mechatronics" was called that, in the industry they just called it "automation". The field is dominated in North America initially by Ladder logic, which everyone on this website (except me) would absolutely hate if they saw it. It has its purposes however.
In the last 10 years you see a lot more standardization of automation languages, specifically the IEC-61131-3 standard, which includes the following languages:
- LD (Ladder Diagram) - a.k.a. ladder logic
- FBD (Function Block Diagram) - similar to your labview
- SFC (Sequential Function Chart) - a fancy state machine or state diagram
- ST (Structured Text) - a "normal" computer language with a syntax similar to BASIC/Pascal
- IL (Instruction List) - kind of like assembly, but not really
In real life (I do this for a living) I see a lot of LD, and then secondarily a bunch of FBD and ST. I myself have used SFC in several projects over the last 5 years, and I like some of its features, but it has some problems (notably gentle recovery from faults is usually harder in SFC than in LD).
Note that IEC-61131-3 is only a standard that nails down the data types and the features of the languages, but the syntax of each language typically differs greatly from vendor to vendor. You can't just export code from one vendor's IDE and import it into another. They're not compatible.
There was one other proprietary automation language I used, called Steeplechase. It's a flowchart based language, similar to SFC, but simpler. I believe it was purchased by Entivity, which was then purchased by Phoenix Contact, so I think they still sell it. I remember it also had a ladder logic engine as well.
Edit:
For an example of ladder logic (and a bit of SFC), here's an introductory tutorial I wrote on how to get going with Rockwell Software's RSLogix 5000 ladder logic programming software for Allen-Bradley's popular line of ControlLogix PLC's: RSLogix 5000 Tutorial. It'll give you a good idea of how it works, even though the example is a bit contrived.