Mechatronics Course Research Articles

Improving a practical course assignment for mechatronics education

Hands-on learning is widely recognized as an essential component of mechatronics education. In this article, we describe an implementation of a student work assignment in an advanced course in mechatronics. The article compares the previous free-form project with the new common-form exercise. The purpose is to renew the form, execution, and grading of the assignment, for better control over the learning outcomes and focusing the workload of the teaching staff without needlessly limiting the students’ own exploration of the topic. The evaluation is based on the teachers’ observations and the students’ feedback. In the assignment, the students will design and build a controllable see-saw mechanism powered by ordinary computer cooling fans. Similar experiments are commonly used for teaching in the form of ready-made plans, kits or complete devices. In our version, we wanted to involve the students in the lower level design to better illustrate the effects of mechanical details on the control system. The updated exercise was well received, the students reported clearer understanding of the synergy between the different disciplines of mechatronics, and the teachers were able to provide more comprehensive assistance on questions. Some challenges were identified, including a lack of analytical research by the students when not specifically prompted to do so. In our opinion this renewed approach is flexible enough to accommodate students from various backgrounds and helps the teachers to better adjust the supplied materials according to their students’ particular needs.

Impact of scaffolding and hands-on assignments within mechatronics on student learning outcomes of KEEN's entrepreneurial mindset

Scaffolding learning and incorporating hands-on activities are proven pedagogical techniques that improve student engagement. A growing movement within engineering education has been to educate beyond the technical skills and foster an improvement in students’ entrepreneurial mindset. A modified version of a validated self-efficacy tool is used here to assess the impact that scaffolding and hands-on activities within a Mechatronics course have on developing the three student learning outcomes associated with the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network's entrepreneurial mindset: “curiosity,” “connections,” and “creating value” (3Cs). A total of 229 students were considered in this study. Presurveys and postsurveys were used to collect self-efficacy ratings for confidence, success, motivation, and anxiety with respect to each of the 3Cs. Additionally, for comparisons a baseline behavioral tool was assessed along with students self-reported prior experiences relevant to the course and overall time spent on course activities. The group was split into high-performers and low-performers for the purpose of analysis. For all 3Cs, aspects of student perceived confidence and success significantly increased between the presurveys and postsurveys for the entire group. However, student perceived motivation was not significantly improved for any of the 3Cs. Interestingly for “connections,” student perceived anxiety decreased only for the high-performing group. This study suggests that changes in these 3Cs can be identified within a single course when subaspects of the mindset are considered.

CONSTRUÇÃO DE UM TÚNEL DE VENTO DIDÁTICO COMO APLICAÇÃO PEDAGÓGICA NO ENSINO TÉCNICO

ABSTRACT: A didactic wind tunnel was designed and built as a pedagogical proposal aimed at teachers and students of a technical course in mechatronics integrated into the high school at the Federal Institute of São Paulo. The proposal aimed to analyze the learning results from the implementation of the project added to an experimental test; as well as to investigate the integration of contents and the interdisciplinarity in this didactic practice, and also present the technical-mathematical analysis involved in the construction of the equipment and the experimental test. The simultaneous and integrated approach between analysis of pedagogical practice and technical-mathematical investigation constitutes a differential of this research. Positive points arising from the pedagogical practice were evidenced and may support future didactic interactions in the development of projects with experimental testing. Besides proving existing theories about air dynamics, the proposal sought to bring students closer to the universe of applied science through a dialogic and encouraging teacher mediation, as well as providing a holistic view between theory and practice set in high school integrated with professional and technological training.

Impact of implementing project‐based assignment (PBA) in CDIO framework for computer numerical control application course

AbstractOver the past decades, the development of engineering skills among students has been drastically reduced in Indian education. The students need to develop not only knowledge but also the necessary skills to survive in fast‐growing technology. Particularly in industry‐related automation courses, the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) adds to the necessity of building engineering skills at a higher level. It is well observed from various educational studies that engineering skills with higher cognitive ability can be developed with problem‐based learning (PBL). The curriculum has to be designed in such a way that it provides a flexible framework for PBL. As the current assessment system has written exams as a major element of evaluation, PBL can be incorporated into practice in the form of hands‐on problem‐based assignments (PBA) that are evaluated periodically. This study proposes the exercising of PBL as PBA to validate K4 (Analyze) and K5 (Evaluate) cognitive levels according to Bloom's cognitive domain. The proposed case study discusses the impact of project‐based assignment (PBA) in two different approaches in the curriculum of Mechatronics Engineering. The first approach follows Outcome Based Education with Choice Based Credit System (OBE‐CBCS approach) and the second approach has an additional Conceive Design Implement and Operate framework to it (OBE‐CBCS‐CDIO approach). The continuous assessment and assignment methods vary with different education curriculum systems. This study presents the impact study of the PBA activity in a Mechatronics course, “Computer Numerical Control (CNC) Application” in 2 consecutive years with two different curriculum frameworks. The results show that the OBE‐CBCS‐CDIO framework students outperform the OBE‐CBCS students in acquiring higher‐order thinking skills.

A Two Wheel Self-Balancing Vehicle

Abstract This paper deals with the development of the equation of motion and practical implementation of low cost two-wheel self-balancing model of a Segway transporter. The experimental model of cart was designed and made under this study. Nonlinear equations of motion of real model and linearized model were derived. To develop the mathematical model, Matlab/Simulink was applied. The mechanical part was implemented into Simulink, and a DC motor was considered as a linear system. The real model was tested for its balance by implementation of a control algorithm consisting of a complementary filter and PID algorithm on an Arduino development board with peripheral devices. The fully functional self-balancing model was used as a demonstration in the teaching process of the Mechatronics courses.

Trainer Kit Pneumatik sebagai Media Pembelajaran pada Mata Kuliah Mekatronika di Program Studi Pendidikan Vokasional Teknik Elektro Untirta

The research is a research and development (RD) with the aim to produce learning media products in the form of pneumatic trainer kits and pneumatic jobsheet trainers as pneumatic material in mechatronics courses to determine the level of eligibility and strengthening of competencies in Vocational Education in Electrical Engineering FKIP Untirta. This study uses the 4D or Defne model, namely the problem definition stage to be investigated, Design which is the product design stage and the material design josbheet material, Development (Development), namely the product manufacturing stage, product validation as well as user testing with competency strengthening and Dessiminate. The final product resulting from this development research is in the form of an electropneatic trainer kit and jobsheet which is also the main object of research. The method used in collecting data in this study includes interviews, observation, questionnaires and test questions for strengthening psychomotor competence. Testing the feasibility level of pneumatic media trainer kit involves three media experts and three material experts, as well as testing for psychomotor competency strengthening conducted by students of the Electrical Engineering Vocational Education study program in the 6th semester of 2017. The power analysis technique uses quantitative descriptive analysis. Based on the results of the study obtained a score on the feasibility test of media experts to get 91.3 included in the category of "Very Eligible", scores on the feasibility test of material experts obtained 86.3 who were included in the category of "Very Eligible", and the results of the answers to the matter of strengthening psychomotor competence obtained a score of answering with "True" of 324 while the score of answering with "False" of 96 which states that a pneumatic trainer kit along with a pneumatic trainer josbheet can be used as a reinforcement of competence in mechatronics courses.

Case study: Employing Agile Tools in Teaching Product Development to Mechatronics Students

Agile tools such as Git are widely used in the industry for source control, collaboration and documentation. Such tools have been implemented in a mechatronic product development course to allow for easier collaboration between students. The course content is mainly provided using a GitLab Pages webpage which hosts software documentation and scripts. This course was first changed in 2019 to include the development of an autonomous strawberry picker. However, the use of standard learning management system and lecture slides provided a cumbersome experience for the students. Therefore, these agile tools were presented in 2020 version to improve the course. In this paper, the course content is detailed, and student feedback from both years are discussed to reveal the outcome of the changes.

A Novel Mechatronic Kit of Variable Stiffness Manipulators – Design and Implementation

In the developing fields of wearable devices, rehabilitation, and humanoid robotics, variable stiffness actuators (VSAs) are attracting increasing attention. VSA can minimize forces that are exerted by shocks, and can be safely interacted with by their users. They can store and release energy as passive elastic elements. The main goal of this work is to design a variable stiffness mechanism with a lightweight articulated robot arm. The proposed variable stiffness mechanism is based on lever kinematics. An RC servo motor is used to manipulate the leverage and to adjust the stiffness of the mechanism to control the position of a robot arm. Two spring elements absorb the output force from the lever. Such a design can reduce the number of sensing elements that are used in the robotic system and the damage force that is caused by unpredictable external forces. The designed articulated robotic arm uses a worm gear with a 1:40 high gear ratio to increase the payload capacity and reduce the weight of the robot arm. The worm gear has a self-locking function, which reduces the sliding step of the stepping motor. The advantages of the design in this study are the retention of the strength and loading capacity of the robot arm. The software package LabVIEW is used to build the control and measurement environment in which several control syntheses are tested. Numerous experimental results confirm that the design is reliable and has a low cost of implementation in a shock test. The novel mechatronic kit is ideally suitable for use in advanced mechatronic courses for university students. The discussion of the broad issues deliberated in this investigation will be applied to various systems that require variable stiffness manipulators.

Mechatronics Capacity Building in Tanzania

The paper deals with a capacity building project carried out by Politecnico di Milano and the three main technical universities of Tanzania aimed at stimulating high education in mechatronics and at giving professors the tools to design new mechatronics courses in the universities of the Country. This work is focused on the activities carried out at Mbeya University of Science and Technology (M.U.S.T.) where, within one week of intensive course, Tanzanian professors had the opportunity to develop a mechatronic system. The approach was aimed not just at teaching main subjects of a mechatronics course, but also at suggesting how these courses could involve university students on topics that will be a challenge for the emerging industry of the country.

Mechatronics Capacity Building in Tanzania

The paper deals with a capacity building project carried out by Politecnico di Milano and the three main technical universities of Tanzania aimed at stimulating high education in mechatronics and at giving professors the tools to design new mechatronics courses in the universities of the Country. This work is focused on the activities carried out at Mbeya University of Science and Technology (M.U.S.T.) where, within one week of intensive course, Tanzanian professors had the opportunity to develop a mechatronic system. The approach was aimed not just at teaching main subjects of a mechatronics course, but also at suggesting how these courses could involve university students on topics that will be a challenge for the emerging industry of the country.

Microcontroller Programming and Interfacing with Texas Instruments MSP430FR2433 and MSP430FR5994 -- Part II, Second Edition

This book provides a thorough introduction to the Texas Instruments MSP430™ microcontroller. The MSP430 is a 16-bit reduced instruction set (RISC) processor that features ultra-low power consumption and integrated digital and analog hardware. Variants of the MSP430 microcontroller have been in production since 1993. This provides for a host of MSP430 products including evaluation boards, compilers, software examples, and documentation. A thorough introduction to the MSP430 line of microcontrollers, programming techniques, and interface concepts are provided along with considerable tutorial information with many illustrated examples. Each chapter provides laboratory exercises to apply what has been presented in the chapter. The book is intended for an upper level undergraduate course in microcontrollers or mechatronics but may also be used as a reference for capstone design projects. Also, practicing engineers already familiar with another microcontroller, who require a quick tutorial on the microcontroller, will find this book very useful. This second edition introduces the MSP–EXP430FR5994 and the MSP430–EXP430FR2433 LaunchPads. Both LaunchPads are equipped with a variety of peripherals and Ferroelectric Random Access Memory (FRAM). FRAM is a nonvolatile, low-power memory with functionality similar to flash memory.

Development of Mechatronics Trainers as Practical Learning Media for Electrical Engineering Vocational Education Students

This study aims to produce a mechatronics trainer and jobsheet product as a practical learning medium in mechatronics courses, as well as to determine the feasibility level of mechatronics trainer and jobsheet products. The research method used is development research. The development used adopts the ADDIE model which consists of five stages, namely analyze, design, development, implementation, and evaluation. Data collection techniques used include interviews, observations, and questionnaires. Testing the feasibility level of the mechatronics trainer involving four media experts and four material experts, as well as users was carried out by students of the sixth semester of 2018 electrical engineering vocational education study program. The data analysis technique used is descriptive qualitative and quantitative analysis. The results obtained for the media expert feasibility test score of 93.63 with a very decent category, for the material expert score obtained 90.76 including the very feasible category, and the results obtained from users with a score of 88.76 so it can be stated that mechatronics trainers and jobsheets can be used as media mechatronic practice learning in the electrical engineering vocational education study program.

Feedback Control Systems: The \MATLAB/\SIMULINK Approach

Abstract Feedback control systems is an important course in aerospace engineering, chemical engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and mechatronics engineering, to name just a...

The Design of Mechatronics Simulator for Improving the Quality of Student Learning Course in Mechatronics

Learning course on mechatronics specifically the Department of Electrical Engineering Education FPTK UPI still using simulation-aided instructional materials and software. It is still not maximizing students’ competencies in mechatronics courses required to skilfully manipulate the real will are implemented both in industry and in educational institutions. The purpose of this study is to submit a design of mechatronic simulator to improve student learning outcomes at the course mechatronics viewed aspects of cognitive and psychomotor. Learning innovation products resulting from this study is expected to be a reference and a key pillar for all academic units at UPI in implementing the learning environment. The method used in this research is quantitative method with the approach of Research and Development (R and D). Steps being taken in this study includes a preliminary study, design and testing of the design of mechatronic simulator that will be used in the course of mechatronics in DPTE FPTK UPI. Results of mechatronic design simulator which has been in testing using simulation modules and is expected to motivate students to improve the quality of learning good study results in the course of mechatronic expected to be realized.

Promotion of Self-Growth of Students by PBL-Type Manufacturing Practice

We report a practical case example of robot manufacturing practice using a Project Based Learning method, a type of active learning educational method, conducted in the 2015 and 2016 school years. The practice is a compulsory class for fourth-year students in the mechatronics course of a technical college. We study the influence of the class on planning ability, designing ability, and manufacturing ability as engineers, and basic ability as members of society. In addition, we analyze the process of the practice, state of students, and results of a questionnaire survey to show the effectiveness of the practice as a means of practical career education.

Application of LEGO Mindstorms Kits for Teaching Mechatronics Engineering

One of the major educators’ challenges is to teach the theoretical lessons with practical examples that can be taught in the classroom or teaching laboratories. The application of these examples will face a major problem for students in engineering: the difficulty of understanding and seeing how a mechatronic device works in everyday life. This requires the use of tools that enable the construction of different low cost prototypes to assist in student learning. Another challenge to educators is the need to motivate students during the lessons and to present models that students can make and develop on their own. Within this context this paper presents a pedagogic proposition based on the use of LEGO Mindstorms kits to teach practical lab activities in a mechatronics engineering course. The objective is to develop teaching methodologies with the use of these LEGO kits in order to motivate the students and also to promote a higher interdisciplinarity, by proposing projects that unify different disciplines. Thus, the paper is divided into three parts according to the educational experiences implemented in the course of mechatronics engineering at the Federal University of Uberlândia, Brazil. The first part presents the use of the kits in robotics discipline. The second part presents the use of the virtual kits in the Computer Aided Design discipline with zero-cost. The third part presents a multi-disciplinary project EDROM in mechatronics using LEGO kits.

Research on the Case Teaching of Graduate Mechatronics Course in Mechanical Engineering Professional Degree

Graduate case teaching with a complete case study unit, the typical case is expounded, to inspire and guide students thinking, analysis and discussion, in order to improve the student’s ability of independent thinking and ability to solve practical problems. This paper introduces the method of constructing teaching case database, constructing the teaching case database base on the key technology of mechatronics generality, puts forward the construction and design method of the standardized teaching case database of Mechatronics course with advanced, practical and pioneering, and the new thought of case teaching practice is put forward by the organic integration of case teaching, practical activity and practical application.

An Inclusive Musical Mechatronics Course

This paper presents the design of a novel course in mechatronics, based on a project-based learning pedagogical philosophy that uses music as the theme to introduce to a diverse range of learners, the essential concepts of mechatronic practice. The course is designed at a post-graduate level and is targeted at international students who are likely to have a diverse range of background knowledge and potentially even a greater diversity in practical experience. The course builds upon our knowledge and capability in the construction or instrumentation of musical devices and cumulates in the design of a new mechatronic chordophone and the preparation of an IEEE conference paper submission.

Development of Hybrid Courses Utilizing Modules as an Objective in ATE Projects

ABSTRACTOrangeburg-Calhoun Technical College (OCtech) has been awarded two National Science Foundation Advanced Technological Education (NSF-ATE) grants since 2011 that have the development of module-based hybrid courses in Engineering Technology and Mechatronics as objectives. In this article, the advantages and challenges associated with module-based hybrid courses are discussed. The courses that have been developed deal specifically with alternative energy and robotics. Through modularizing the courses, instructors throughout OCtech may elect to use materials from these courses to supplement face-to-face courses or offer the entire course in a hybrid format. In addition to being used in the college’s traditional curriculum, these courses have been utilized in the Middle College and the Flex/Evening College for working adults with great success. The courses and the included modules are housed on a Learning Management System hosted by OCtech that is available to all the colleges and high schools in the state.

Development of Programmable Relay Switch Using Microcontroller

Today the rapid advances in electronic technologies have resulted in a variety of new and inexpensive control capabilities. The rapid rise of the internet and accessibility of computer resources also led to the concept of Open Source Software as a means to provide free and transparent access to computer code so that individuals could review, modify, improve, and distribute computer software. One such Open Source Hardware project resulted in the creation of a microcontroller-based development platform called Arduino. The main objective of this research is to develop an arduino-based PRS to be manufactured by small and Medium Enterprises (SME) in Ethiopia. Specifically, it seeks to answer the (1) What are the technical requirements in the development of the PRS (2) What are the basic functional capabilities of the PRS in terms of Combinational Logic Functions and Sequential Control Functions and (3) What is the acceptability level of PRS as perceived by experts in terms of functionality, reliability, usability, maintainability, aesthetics and safety. The study used descriptive experimental methods of research utilizing laboratory techniques and adopted scholarly questionnaires. The methods were appropriate to determine the physical design, components, tools, functions and features needed in the development of the project. Those were extremely useful in the development of the actual circuit, final parts selection, and software programming to ensure a robust design. Two experiment were tested namely Combinational Logic Functions and Sequential Control Functions using the Programmable Relay Switch and it generates acceptable results by passing all the testing condition. It was concluded that the PRS product model has standard functional capabilities comparable to most standard PLC’s in the market and it is a cheaper but efficient alternative. It can also be constructed from commercially available parts. Moreover, it can be used for actual industrial applications or as a training module in teaching industrial automation or mechatronics courses.