Multidisciplinary Approach and Dual Education in Control Engineering for Mechatronics

Abstract

Dual education is an effective integration of control theory and practical experience providing ideal start to improve professional career of students at many technical universities. The most important benefits it brings both students and industrial partners are practical training in industry companies, opportunity to acquire practical to skills on modern industrial plants and production equipment, as well as to feel how it is to be employed or learn what are the requirements and the culture of companies. At the same time, students have a great chance to be offered a job still during their studies. The paper presents the modern form of study with the focus on development of control methods, control structures, ICT, and their applications in different types of industrial processes. Since its emergence in the late 1970s, mechatronics has become well-established as an academic subject, and is now researched and taught at a large number of worldwide universities and research institutions. We try to get to the heart of multidisciplinary engineering of which mechatronics is an excellent example, and point out how the integration of disciplines leads to new degrees of freedom in the corresponding dual form of education in connection with industrial partners.