Mechatronics Course Research Articles

A 10-Year Mechatronics Curriculum Development Initiative: Relevance, Content, and Results—Part II

This paper describes the second and third phases of a comprehensive mechatronics curriculum development effort. They encompass the development of two advanced mechatronics courses (?Simulation and Modeling of Mechatronic Systems? and ?Sensors and Actuators for Mechatronic Systems?), the formulation of a Mechatronics concentration, and offshoot research activities in the mechatronics area. The first phase involved the design of an ?Introduction to Mechatronics? course and the infusion of mechatronic activities throughout the curriculum and in outreach activities and has been described in a companion paper ?A 10-Year Mechatronics Curriculum Development Initiative: Relevance, Content, and Results-Part I? (IEEE Transactions on Education, vol. 53, no. 2, May 2010).

Enhancing a Mechatronics design distance-learning course through internet and Web 2.0 technologies

Mechatronics is a newly developed multi-disciplinary engineering subject. Students sometimes find that it is quite difficult to master this area of focus because of its demand for wide range of knowledge in engineering required. In addition, the distance-learning mode presents the geographical and time barrier for students. In the last decade, new Web 2.0 technology was developed rapidly; the proper use of these new technologies can help arouse students' interest in learning a Mechatronics course. In this paper, the use of internet and Web 2.0 technologies to enhance the teaching and learning effectiveness in a Mechatronics distance-learning course will be discussed.

The effect of a new teaching methodology on learning performances of automotive - mechatronics students

In this study a new methodology for teaching of Automotive Mechatronics course is proposed. The students who have taken the course were divided into two groups: the first, for classical mode of teaching and the other for the new model of instruction. The performance of the students were measured by pre-test and post-test. The results show that, handing out the class material beforehand and having the students learn by practicing in the laboratory, increase the students’ interest and success when compared to those being taught the theory, in class and having completed the experiments in the lab afterwards.

Installation of Mechatronics Education Using the MindStorms for Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, O.N.C.T

The author constructed an installation course of mechatronics and conducted on the students of department of mechanical engineering, Oita national college of technology. The course is composed of six sessions and is aiming to grow up the mechanical engineers who can adapt quickly to changes in industrial society. Then, the education programs of computer technology and information processing are more emphasized in this course. Certainly the specific subjects involved with mechatronics are constructed as a part of curriculum in the older grades, however there is some difficulties to make students of department of mechanical engineering to have interests in electronics and/or information science. Viewed in this light, it is better to begin mechatronics education with undergoing experiments like this course since they were in early grade.

Innovative Design of a Variable Intermittent Slider-Crank Mechanism

This paper describes a method used to elaborate the design of a slider-crank mechanism. The TRIZ contradiction table method is used to select an appropriate innovation principle, here to connect, in series, n pneumatic cylinders to the connecting link of the mechanism, so that it will have a length of 2 n, and then to combine automatic pneumatic and electronic control methods. The result is a variable intermittent slider-crank mechanism with multiple functions, such as a straight reciprocating motion, a straight intermittent reciprocating motion, a step variable, variable stroke, and mixed motions. The paper presents example designs and a prototype. The study results can act not only as teaching material (e.g. low-cost and easy programming) for mechanism creative design and mechatronics courses, but also as a reference for developing similar mechanisms for a feeding machine, printing machine, bias cutter, or surface glue cutter for the rubber industry.

Design and evaluation of a micro-fuel-cell-based power system for a mobile robot

A mobile robot being used for an undergraduate course in mechatronics engineering was converted from a conventional lead acid battery to a hydrogen fuelled polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) micro fuel cell as the power source. The application of the robot is first outlined. Next, the design of the fuel-cell-based power supply system as assembled from the commercial components is described. Finally, the performance of the fuel cell is documented. The performance was found to match that of the conventional battery. An operational problem associated with the purging of water had to be solved. Although the cost of the fuel cell was 50 times that of the battery, the exercise did serve to demonstrate the potential of the technology

Mechatronics Course Design for Industry

As the field and application of mechatronics grows, Engineering and Vocational and Technical education must grow with it to meet the needs of industry. This paper focuses on the designing of a mechatronics courses for industry. University-government-industry and Private Companies have collaborated in a project and shared responsibilities and tasks. In this article, we describe our experience in running mechatronics courses for Engineers, Higher Technician and Technician Courses in Ankara’s industry since 2001.We also describe an industryuniversity co-operation model, training of trainers, the designing of a mechatronics laboratory and course in accordance to the expectations of industry, setting up the feedback mechanism of keeping quality of courses, developing projects financing and management methods

Challenging computer‐based projects for a Mechatronics course: Teaching and learning through projects employing virtual instrumentation

AbstractFor the Mechatronics program in the School of Engineering, at Monash University, one of the approaches to Mechatronics education is mainly through a project‐based course. In this pedagogical approach, the synergistic combination of traditional lecture‐type of teaching and projects were presented to students. This approach is believed to be useful in the providing for hands‐on engineering experience for Mechatronics undergraduate students (MechUGs). This paper describes a second‐year Mechatronics undergraduate project‐based course. This paper deals with and reports on the successfully utilization of virtual instrumentation for Mechatronics projects and engaging the students to learn intuitively. This paper summarizes four different projects based on commercial National Instruments (NIs) LabVIEW software and various hardware, which were successfully implemented. Four groups of second‐year MechUGs were enrolled for a project‐based course for one semester period. The four projects involved the utilization of a variety of hardwares. A common software, LabVIEW was used for all the four projects. These projects involved data acquisition, signal processing, motion control, low‐cost machine vision, and digital I/O (Input/Output) control on NI‐ELVIS (Educational Laboratory Virtual Instrumentation Suite) workstation. This approach has prolifically enabled intuitive learning and hands‐on experience gained by these MechUGs. They were able to successfully complete their Mechatronics projects within a short span of 13 weeks. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 14: 222–242, 2006; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com); DOI 10.1002/cae.20083

Sensors, actuators, and computer interfacing laboratory course at the University of California at Santa Barbara

The Department of Mechanical and Environmental Engineering at the University of California at Santa Barbara has developed a required laboratory course on Sensors, Actuators, and Computer Interfacing, which is specifically designed to equip undergraduates with basic mechatronics skills. Unlike typical mechatronics courses that have a small, specialized enrollment, this course has been designed to accommodate a larger, more general enrollment, typically numbering 100 students. In this paper, we provide an outline for any institution that is interested in offering an introductory mechatronics laboratory course as part of its required undergraduate curriculum.

SHAPING THE MECHATRONICS COURSES FOR THE CONTROL CURRICULUM

Five years of field practice in developing and delivering Mechatronics courses in the context of a Control education curriculum, have shaped the didactic approaches in place and delivered a number concrete results from hands-on experience. The paper reports on some of the main outcomes of this undertaking, presented within an integrating framework that brings together curriculum content, didactic methods, teaching tools and organizational aspects.

Computer-aided automatic control education with a real-time development system

This article deals with the development of a real-time digital experimental setup for reinforcement of control education, using available components such as prototyping system and a DC motor module for graduate research activities. The prototyping system called prototyper is a flexible development system to control designs of a real plant without manual programming. The DC motor module is a bench-scale analog system and it was modified to be used as a hardware in the loop (HIL) in the implementation of the experimental setup. The design of PID controllers and the frequency response tests were conducted. It is demonstrated that the design of PID controllers and frequency response tests can easily be conducted on the developed experimental setup. This work aims to train student practically in the education of real-time digital controller in automatic control and mechatronic courses. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 13: 181–191, 2005; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com); DOI 10.1002/cae.20045

What is Mechatronics and Why Teach it?

Despite a world-wide interest in mechatronics education, there is no clear and consistent understanding of what mechatronics is, nor how, and at what level, it should be taught. The key challenge for mechatronics course designers is seen as that of ensuring an appropriate balance between depth and breadth while providing opportunities to enable students to practise integration. The paper discusses this in relation to a number of mechatronic themes. Factors influencing the design, structure and content of a mechatronics programme are discussed and suggestions made as to the possible core content of such a programme.

A Study of the Design, Manufacture and Remote Control of a Pneumatic Excavator

In this study, a CAD/CAE/CAM and remote control integrated system for a pneumatic excavator mechanism was developed. The vector loop method and Visual C++ language were used to build the position analysis module. Pro/ENGINEER (Pro/E) was used to construct the parametric solid models. Pro/Mechanica was used to simulate the kinematic analysis. MasterCAM was used to implement the cutting simulation, and then the prototype was manufactured on a milling machine. An FB −28MC Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) and Visual Basic (VB) language were used to remote control the excavator. A demonstration example is presented to verify the design, analysis and control results. The project was useful as a supplementary teaching tool for practical computer-aided mechanism design and mechatronics courses. It was designed for educational purposes; it made use of low-cost and easy programming, and avoided the use of expensive industrial equipment.

Genesis and Evolution of an Undergraduate Mechatronics Course

A mechatronics course provides an excellent forum for teaching introductory mechanical design concepts. The students can learn all the traditional materials such as planning tools, evaluation matrices, functional decomposition, report writing, etc. Furthermore, the product of their design activities is exciting and rewarding because it is a mechatronic device. However, in addition to the fundamental design curriculum, the students must also learn basic mechatronic concepts such as programming and electronics. Combining all of this material into a single semester course for undergraduates at the sophomore and junior level proves to be challenging. This paper documents the goals and structure of such a course and describes its evolution. Conclusions summarize the important lessons learned by the faculty.

Design of Proper Course Projects for Effective Student Learning

This paper addresses the issue of how to design proper course projects to achieve effective student learning in Mechatronics Education. By reflecting on the author’s experience on teaching both Robotics and Mechatronics courses, several important considerations in designing course projects are pointed out. These include properly incorporating research components, student contests, industrial needs, laboratory development, and fun into the course projects. The effectiveness of this approach is demonstrated through student feedback, course evaluation, peer evaluation, and interviews. It has been shown that proper course projects help to improve the quality of Mechatronics education, arouse student interest in engineering, and motivate undergraduate students to pursue to graduate study. Properly integrating research, lab development, and industrial projects into the classrooms also helps the faculty to maintain the dynamic balance between the teaching, research, and service.

Interdisciplinary Collaborative Learning in Mechatronics at Bucknell University

AbstractExamination of the “cone of learning” shows an increase in retention when students are actively engaged in the learning process. Mechatronics is loosely defined as the application of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and computer intelligence to the design of products or systems. By its nature, mechatronics is an activity‐oriented course. The course content also provides an opportunity to employ interdisciplinary collaborative learning with active learning techniques. The mechatronics course at Bucknell consists of mechanical and electrical engineering students at the senior and graduate levels. The students engage in a variety of activities in teams comprised of members from each of these groups. In addition to team laboratory exercises and homework assignments, the students work in interdisciplinary groups to process their efforts. That is, they engage in meaningful discussion among themselves concerning their activities and the implications of the various results. The students also act as teachers by preparing lectures and exercises on topics from their discipline to the students in the cross discipline. Specifically, the electrical engineers teach the mechanical engineers microcontrollers, and the mechanical engineers teach the electrical engineers mechanisms. This paper describes the learning techniques employed in this course, as well as the interpretation of the results from the students. It also discusses the relationship of the course outcomes to Criterion 3 of the engineering accreditation criteria promulgated by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (EAC/ABET).

A new undergraduate course in energy conversion and mechatronics at Georgia Tech

This paper describes a new course in mechatronics that has been developed and introduced in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Tech. The course is designed to serve as an introduction to electromechanical energy conversion and power electronics for both ME and EE students. The course has been designed for students with no background in this area beyond basic sophomore physics. The paper describes the goals of the course and gives an outline and description of both the lecture and laboratory portions of the course.

Graduate Mechatronics course in the school of mechanical engineering at Georgia Tech

The field and application of Mechatronics is broad, encompassing, and interdisciplinary. Teaching Mechatronics to mechanical engineering graduate students is difficult because many students lack undergraduate backgrounds in control theory, digital and analog electronics, and in low to mid-level programming. Therefore, how to teach Mechatronics continues to be an open area for discussion. This paper focuses on the structure of the graduate Mechatronics course in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech. An overview of the recently revised graduate Mechatronics course and the laboratory experiences is presented. Student projects are also included to demonstrate knowledge learned in the course.

Mechatronic curriculum – retrospect and prospect

Recently, many attempts have been pursued to devise an engineering curriculum that will allow students to successfully enter the engineering fields. Mechatronics is a unifying theme that permeates and comprehends modern engineering. One weakness of the computer, electrical, and mechanical engineering curricula is the failure to achieve sufficient background, knowledge, depth, and breadth in integrative multidisciplinary areas to solve complex engineering problems. To overcome this weakness, the integration and developments are sought through mechatronics. The mechatronic curriculum can be viewed as the vehicle by which students are introduced to subject matter, multidisciplinary areas, and disciplines, e.g., electrical, mechanical, and computer engineering fields of study. Mechatronics is a part of the modern integrated (confluent) curriculum due to interaction, interpretation, relevance, and systematization. Efficient and effective means to assess the current trends in modern engineering with assessments analysis and outcome prediction must be devised through the mechatronic paradigm. The multidisciplinary mechatronic courses, combined with the variety of active student learning processes and synergetic teaching styles, will produce a level of overall student accomplishments that is greater than any achievements which can be produced by refining the conventional electrical and mechanical curricula. The multidisciplinary mechatronic paradigm serves very important purposes because it brings new depth to electrical, mechanical, and computer areas, advances students knowledge and background, provides students with the basic problem-solving skills that need to cope with advanced electromechanical systems controlled by microprocessors or digital signal processors (DSPs), covers state-of-the-art hardware, and applies modern software environments. Through the mechatronic curriculum, important program objectives and goals can be achieved and assessed. The integration of mechatronic courses into the engineering curriculum is reported in this article.

March madness: a mechatronics project theme

The growing realization of the need to educate mechanical and other non-electrical engineering students in the application of electronics, microprocessors and software has led to the creation of Mechatronics courses (and in some cases degree programs) at many universities around the world. Many of these courses share a set of basic goals and an emphasis on laboratory work in general, and design projects in particular. This paper presents an example of an open-ended project that has been developed in support of the undergraduate mechatronics course at Stanford University. This is a one-quarter course that culminates in a project that occupies the student's laboratory time for the last four weeks of the quarter. The paper will present a recent successful project description and examine several student solutions.