Curriculum,equipment and student project outcomes for mechatronics education in the core mechanical engineering program at Kettering University

Following an NSF grant in 1997 to develop undergraduate mechatronics laboratories and courses, two senior-level elective courses were introduced in the mechanical engineering curriculum at Kettering University. The student popularity of the subject, and relevance to graduating mechanical engineers soon made it clear that mechatronics education belonged to the core curriculum at Kettering. To integrate mechatronics into the mechanical engineering core, two existing sophomore-level courses were redesigned to include significant educational experiences in mechatronics design and prototype fabrication. Introduction to Design (ME-203) previously featured a 6-week student project in which teams of students would design and build an electromechanical device to accomplish functionality defined in design constraints provided by the professor. However, these devices were not mechatronic in nature. In the revised course, the objective is to evolve these designs to utilize embedded microcontrollers, sensors and actuators and achieve much more sophisticated functionality. To accommodate the anticipated increase in time required to complete such projects, the existing sophomore course Instrumentation (ME-204) was revised to incorporate learning objectives from the senior-level mechatronics elective courses. Further, 6 weeks of laboratory time from Instrumentation could then be dedicated to the aforementioned mechatronic projects. As such, both ME-203 and ME-204 have been integrated to form an eight-credit “Introduction to Mechatronics Design” course. This paper details the scope of this course, the specialized equipment developed for it and student project outcomes.     

A mechatronics educational laboratory – Programmable logic controllers and material handling experiments

The integration of robotics, conveyors, sensors, and programmable logic controllers into manufacturing and material handling processes requires engineers with technical skills and expertise in these systems. The coordination of assembly operations and supervisory control demands familiarity with mechanical and electrical design, instrumentation, actuators, and computer programming for successful system development. This paper presents an educational mechatronics laboratory that encourages multi-disciplinary hands-on engineering discovery within team settings. Three focused progressive experiments are reviewed that allow students to program and operate a programmable logic controller, a traditional conveyor system, and a distributed servo-motor based conveyor. The students also program and implement two robotic arms for material handling applications. The equipment, learning objectives, and experimental methodology for each laboratory are discussed to offer insight. A collaborative design project case study is presented in which student teams create a smart material handling system. Overall, engineering graduates have generally been required to learn material handling and other multi-disciplinary concepts in the field, and therefore, a well-rounded engineering curriculum should incorporate mechatronics in both the classroom and laboratory.     

A mechatronics control engineering class at Beihang University,China: Practicing and exploring

Due to the synergistic nature of mechanical engineering, electronic control and systematical thinking [1], the mechatronics education is regarded as a complicated and more demanding course characterized by the need of highly integrated ability with theoretical knowledge and hands-on experiment to solve proposed problems, and thus has drawn great attention worldwide. As one of the typical and innovative teaching modes in mechatronics in China, mechatronics teaching in Beihang University has formed a “One main line, Two links, Three practical points” mode and methodology, which emphasizes on the links and mapping relationships between theoretical teaching and practical teaching. After 6-year practicing and exploring, the course has made fundamental and systematic innovation achievements in the field with respect to class materials, teaching mode, teaching system. Several typical mechatronics projects proposed and achieved by students have verified the effect and innovation of the project based teaching mode and methodology.     

Mechatronics education at CDHAW of Tongji University: Laboratory guidelines,framework, implementations and improvements

Engineering education is facing unprecedented challenges and exciting opportunities, particularly in the mechatronics engineering education area. Due to the highly applied nature of mechatronics engineering, mechatronics students need a focused laboratory environment which is as close as possible to the real-world situation to apply and absorb mechatronics concepts, and to assist them in the development of “hands-on” skills. The Chinese–German School of Applied Sciences (Chinesisch-Deutsche Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften, CDHAW) is an educational project of the Chinese Ministry of Education and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, implemented by the Tongji University and a consortium of German Universities of Applied Sciences. In a previous paper – mechatronics education at CDHAW of Tongji University: structure, orientation and curriculum, which was published in Journal Mechatronics 2008;18:172–7, the authors presented the orientation and curriculum design of mechatronics education at CDHAW. In this paper, we will discuss systematically the guidelines, framework, implementations and improvements of our mechatronics laboratory corresponding to our orientation and curriculum design.     

Exploration and practice: A competition based project practice teaching mode

In recent years, known as multi-discipline, integration, product and system, mechatronics education has drawn worldwide attention. On the foundation of 7 years’ mechatronics education experience, and taking the characteristics of Chinese undergraduate students into consideration, Beihang University improved the previous teaching mode, and formed a competition based project practice teaching mode. After one year’s exploration and practice, this mode more easily stimulates the enthusiasm and initiative of students, enhances their hands-on ability, innovative thinking and teamwork spirit. The experiment achievements and feedbacks from students prove that this mode largely realized the goal of the course.     

Using mechatronics in early design

This paper presents the results of integrating mechatronics into a large second year design course. Issues related to course objectives, implementation, costs and results from a curriculum perspective are presented. The systems developed for this course are the result of three years of system design and modification. The results of this paper demonstrate that for realistic costs and efforts, mechatronics can be integrated into a sophomore level design class that services approximately 300 students per year. Furthermore, results from the senior level capstone design course indicate that the use of mechatronics permeates throughout the students' career.     

Project based learning in mechatronics education in close collaboration with industrial: Methodologies,examples and experiences

The paper describes how the philosophy of project based learning (PBL) was integrated into the mechatronics capstone design course “Mechatronics Project Design and Management (MPDM)” at The Chinese–German School of Applied Sciences (Chinesisch–Deutsche Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften, CDHAW) of Tongji University, Shanghai, China. The course teaching philosophy, implementation methodologies, examples and experiences were discussed.     

A proposed approach to mechatronics design education: Integrating design methodology,simulation with projects

Mechatronics engineering graduates are expected to design mechatronics products with higher performance and lower costs. The success of a mechatronics engineering program is directly related to the structural design methodology, modeling and simulation, and the practical implementation of fully integrated physical systems. In this paper a mechatronics design education-oriented V-model was proposed to fulfill these requirements. The main idea behind our proposed approach aims to integrate various stages such as design, simulation and physical implementations in development of mechatronics product or system. Students are asked to first follow the structural design methodology to do the conceptual and further detail design for an open-ended problem, then to do appropriate simulation to verify the feasibility of the design, and at last to integrate all components and subsystems into a complete physical product or system. The V-model-related courses and structures were explained in detail, and project implementation experiences were described and discussed with the help of example student projects.     

Development of a mechatronics laboratory-eliminating barriers to manufacturing instrumentation and control

The integration of electronics, sensors, actuators, and microprocessor technology into manufacturing processes and consumer products is requiring engineers to possess greater mechatronics knowledge. Students must be encouraged to embrace a mechatronics perspective through combined classroom and "hands-on" laboratory activities to develop critical systems skills for multidisciplinary teams. In this paper, laboratory experiments and their accompanying learning objectives are introduced and discussed which highlight key industrial technologies and establish a foundation for skill achievement.     

Can agile methods enhance mechatronics design education?

This paper presents a study of the integration of agile methods into mechatronics design education, as performed at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. The chosen method, Scrum, and the context of the studied capstone course are presented.With the integration of Scrum into the capstone projects, an educational favorable alternative is identified, to previously used design methodologies such as more traditional stage-gate methods as the Waterfall or method or the V-model. This is due to the emphasis on early prototyping, quick feedback and incremental development. It still might not be the favorable method for use in large scale industrial development projects where formal procedures might still be preferred, but the pedagogical advantages in mechatronics education are valuable. Incremental development and rapid prototyping for example gives many opportunities for students to reflect and improve. The Scrum focus on self-organizing teams also provides a platform to practice project organization, by empowering students to take responsibility for the product development process.Among the results of this study, it is shown that it is possible and favorable to integrate Scrum in a mechatronics capstone course and that this can enhance student preparation for a future career as mechatronics designers or product developers. It is also shown that this prepares the students with a larger flexibility to handle the increased complexity in mechatronics product development and thereby enabling the project teams to deliver results faster, more reliable and with higher quality.     

Using learning communities to teach technical communication inaccounting

The paper describes the implementation of a learning community involving a technical communication course and an accounting course. Students are simultaneously registered in all the courses constituting the learning community. The learning community approach to writing instruction can be viewed as one way to implement writing across the curriculum with the following distinguishing features. First, students are registered simultaneously for both courses; the communication skills taught in one course are simultaneously reinforced in another course. Second, the faculty of the two courses interact extensively to deliver skills (e.g., communication skills) in a coherent manner across the two courses. We describe the development of a theoretical framework for connecting the two courses. This theoretical framework guided implementation decisions such as the choice of communication skills to be covered in the accounting course, the design of assignments, and the design of evaluation criteria. While we focus on the integration of an accounting course with a communication course, the learning community approach and the implementation steps are applicable to other disciplines     

Mechatronics-an industrial perspective

The term "mechatronics" is defined to provide a framework for technical and practical considerations. Within this framework, the importance of "intimate and organic" integration in mechatronics product designs is raised. Several issues pertaining to attaining this ideal integration of mechanical, electronic controls, and system engineering in mechatronics product designs are cited. To further advance the current mechatronics products, areas of improvement are also presented.     

Knowledge transfer across disciplines: tracking rhetorical strategies from a technical communication classroom to an engineering classroom

This article presents findings from an empirical study investigating the transfer of rhetorical knowledge, defined as audience awareness, sense of purpose, organization, use of visuals, professional appearance, and style, between the technical communication and the engineering disciplines. Various data collection methods were used to examine the skills and rhetorical knowledge students learned in a technical communication course and determine whether or not students relied on that knowledge as they completed writing assignments in an engineering course. Also examined was the effect of workplace experiences on shaping students' rhetorical knowledge. This study indicated that students did appear to transfer rhetorical strategies between different contexts, and those strategies were learned in the workplace as well as the classroom.     

Mechatronics in the Netherlands

This article assesses the present situation of mechatronics in the Netherlands. After a short historical survey, it describes the postgraduate "mechatronic designer course", introduced in 1991. It deals with the principles of this course and how these principles have been implemented. Also, the activities of the Dutch government in cooperation with the industrial mechatronics community to enhance the awareness of mechatronics, especially directed toward small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is described.     

Mechatronics education in Turkey

In this study, the present situation of mechatronics education in Turkey and its development process are investigated. Although the term “mechatronics” was introduced into Turkish agenda in 1993, the developments in this field were very slow. It was not until late 1990s that mechatronics education in Turkey entered into expansion phase. Today in Turkey, although it is a little bit late, there is mechatronics education from high school level to graduate level. Limited number of students due to lack of technical personnel and infrastructure, theoretically dominated curricula, insufficient coordination among state, industry and university in mechatronics education can all be stated amongst the main obstacles of mechatronics education in Turkey. Nevertheless, the demand for skilled personnel in mechatronics field is increasing in Turkish Industry, which is entering into globalization process in recent years. Thus, it can be expected that a new perspective and acceleration will take place in Turkish vocational and technical education system with the advance of mechatronics education classes in all high school, vocational training schools, graduate and postgraduate schools levels.     

What difference does inherited difference make? Exploring cultureand gender in scientific and technical professions

A course design and the material for implementing a course in which students explore the status of women and minorities in the scientific and technical professions and the possible reasons for that status are presented. The course is offered as a model for the integration of intercultural and gender issues into the technical communication classroom. Since cultural and gender issues are neither scientific nor technological but humanities issues, core readings for the course are humanities texts. By working in teams of culturally and gender-diverse colleagues, students explore the intercultural concerns and gender issues in the field of technical communication. Students conduct personal interviews, study published reports, obtain policy statements and current statistics, analyze data, draw conclusions, and submit a comprehensive technical report to audiences who might act on those findings, such as the National Science foundation     

Mechatronics – More questions than answers

Since the introduction of mechatronics as an integrated and integrating approach to the design, development and operation of complex systems, there have been significant developments in technology, and in particular in processing power, which have changed the nature of a wide range of products and systems from domestic appliances and consumer goods to manufacturing systems and vehicles. In addition, the development and implementation of strategies such as those associated with concurrent engineering and the introduction of intelligent tools to support the design of complex products and systems has also changed the way in which such systems are conceived, implemented and manufactured.The aim of the paper is not however to attempt to address or answer specific questions as to the nature of mechatronics and its current and future standing as an approach to engineering design and development, but to initiate, provoke and stimulate debate and discussion on a range of mechatronics related issues, without necessarily attempting to provide answers or suggest new methods or approaches, relating to the future potential of and directions for mechatronics. In this respect therefore, while containing an element of review, the paper is intended as a discussion document structured around the author’s personal experience and perspective of mechatronics issues.Inherent to this questioning of the ways in which mechatronics may develop are the various attempts that have taken place over the years to provide a definition of mechatronics, either in the form of text or logo and whether these efforts have of themselves been a source of confusion as to both content and direction within mechatronics? In which case, might it be preferable for mechatronics practitioners to operate within their own particular context than to attempt to conform to a specific and overarching definition?Finally, it must also be made clear that in writing this paper that complete agreement with the reader as to the particular questions raised and comments made is neither sought nor intended.     

浅谈移动通信基站防雷检测注意事项

根据《通信局（站）在用防雷系统的技术要求和检测方法》（YD/T1429-2006）、《通信局（站）防雷与接地工程设计规范》（YD5098-2005）等相关技术规范,通过对移动通信基站防雷装置的设计与施工特点进行分析;对其遭受雷击的典型事故进行总结;并结合多年来对移动通信基站进行防雷检测的工作经验,提出在对其进行防雷检测时应注意哪些问题,技术上如何进行把关,以防止和减少因防雷检测的疏忽而导致的雷击事故的发生。文中通过对移动通信基站日常检测中需要注意的＂共用接地问题、接地电阻问题、线缆引入问题、等电位连接问题、SPD设置问题、接闪器保护范围问题＂等六大问题进行分析与总结,便于有效地开展基站的防雷检测工作。