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.     

Investigation of mechatronic education in South Korea

This paper presents diverse aspects of South Korean mechatronic education in an effort to provide the basis of constructing a more desirable educational system on mechatronics. For this purpose, an analysis of the curriculum of 15 universities with departments of mechatronics are presented. It can be said that, in South Korea, characteristics of mechatronic education is that independent organizations for Mechatronics are operated over 15 universities and their curriculum is evolved to adapt local industrial environments. Almost all of them are trying to meet the requirements of Accreditation Board of Engineering Education of Korea (ABEEK), which is very similar to Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology (ABET) in the United States. Another distinguishing feature is that the National Qualification Test for Mechatronics is offered in South Korea. The problem to be solved in near future is that there are some conflicts between ABEEK requirements and National Qualification Test. The ratio of students from vocational high schools entering 4-year universities is increasing in South Korea. The same tendency can be found in Japan, and some universities are trying to offer preparation courses to provide basic knowledge on physics, mathematics and chemistry to them.     

Teaching control system design through mechatronics: academic and industrial perspectives

The present approach to teaching control system design as a stand-alone course offered late in the undergraduate curriculum, with little discussion of hardware, implementation, or integration through design, is ineffective in preparing students for engineering practice. Control systems must be integrated into the design from the beginning and not be simply after-thought add-ons. Based on the authors' extensive experience teaching mechatronics to university students and professional engineers, an integrated mechatronic approach to teaching controls is proposed. This approach will seriously address the deficiencies in the present-day skills of working professionals, as observed by the authors in teaching professional engineering workshops. These deficiencies are a direct result of how we presently teach controls and related topics.     

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.     

A design paradigm for mechatronic systems

Concepts of mechatronics are applicable in the design of complex and multi-domain dynamic systems. This paper presents an approach based on the mechatronic design quotient (MDQ) for systematic design of a mechatronic system. Traditional procedures of design are hierarchically separated into topological design and parametric design. Extending this concept, an MDQ may be “structured” into a multi-layered hierarchy. The approach and significance of the application of MDQ in mechatronic design are indicated using illustrative examples.     

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.     

自动化专业开设综合实验课的探索与实践

针对当前课程体系中综合应用专业知识的实践教学环节的不足，依据围绕核心课程设置项目驱动综合实验的思路，增设了“自动控制综合实验”和“计算机控制综合实验”2门实验课程，形成递进式专业课实践教学体系：“专业基础课→专业综合实验→专业课→专业综合实验→综合课程设计→毕业设计”，已完成两届学生培养，获得良好的教学效果。     

Micro mechatronics and micro actuators

Micro mechatronics is the synergetic integration of both mechanical and electronic systems based on scaling effects in the micro world. A micro mechatronics system is expected to be the key component of the mechanical system, such as in electronic automotive technologies. Micro mechatronics requires the organic combination of micro devices such as micro processor, micro sensor, and micro actuator. Among the micro devices, the micro processor and micro sensor have been widely employed in advanced mechatronics products, but not the micro actuator. This paper surveys the state of the art of micro mechatronics and deals with micro actuators as new devices for micro mechatronics and advanced mechatronics, which play an important role in today's integrated mechanical products. Since micro actuators are still under development, the authors focus on micro actuators for further research and development in this paper.     

基于ASP.NET的网络选课系统的设计与实现

本设计为基于Dotnet技术开发的网络选课系统,引入学分制和竞分制的概念。提供学生、教师、管理员三个角色登陆系统。实现了学生选课、退课、竞买选课、查看成绩,查看选课结果,查看个人信息、课程信息、教室信息;教师查看教学计划,录入成绩;管理员维护学生、教师、课程、教室信息,设置系统状态等功能。在课程上进行了较细的分类,主要分为专业选修课、专业必修课、公共选修课、公共必修课。该系统具有操作简便,功能强大,可扩展性好等特点。为学生,教师,管理员提供简单快捷的选课工作环境。     

Guest Editorial Introduction to the Focused Section on Advanced Integrated Mechatronics

The 11 regular papers and four short papers in this special section focus on the research issues of advanced integrated mechatronics. The topics include advanced mechatronic sensing, devices and control, biomechatronics for better life, intelligent mechatronic systems, infotronics-enabled mechatronics systems, intelligent automation systems, and innovative applications of mechatronic systems.     

Model-integrated mechatronics - toward a new paradigm in the development of manufacturing systems

The traditional approach for the development of manufacturing systems considers the constituent parts of the system, i.e., mechanical, electronic, and software, to be developed independently and then integrated to form the final system. This approach is being criticized as inappropriate for the complexity and the dynamics of today's systems. This paper proposes an architecture that promotes model integration not only for implementation space artifacts but also in artifacts of the early analysis and design phases of the development process. The proposed architecture, which promotes reuse and significantly decreases development and validation time, is at the heart of a new paradigm called model-integrated mechatronics (MIM). MIM applies domain-specific modeling languages for the concurrent engineering of mechanical, electronic and software components of mechatronic systems. It simplifies the integrated development process of manufacturing systems by using as basic construct the mechatronic component. The MIM paradigm was utilized to define "Archimedes," a system platform that supports the engineer through a methodology, a framework, and a set of tools to automate the development process of agile mechatronic manufacturing systems.     

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.     

What is mechatronics?

With the explosively increasing cost/size-effectiveness of computers, mechatronic systems are becoming common in any engineering discipline dealing with the modulation of physical power. In this article, I attempt a definition of mechatronics that will allow for its differentiation as an identifiable field of engineering and then follow this direction to discuss some of the associated design philosophy. The definition draws on the centrality of computing in mechatronic systems.     

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.     

Sensor technologies and microsensor issues for mechatronics systems

Intelligence and flexibility are essential in a mechatronic product. To achieve the primary function of an integrated system, it is essential that the functional interaction and spatial integration between mechanical, electronic, control, and information technologies be accomplished in a synergistic way. Sensors are as important in the mechatronic system as the senses are to the human being. While the subject of sensors and the need of sensors are certainly important, it is also both pervasive and diffuse. This paper cannot in any sense be exhaustive of such a wide range of discussion, and will only attempt to discuss sensors related to mechatronics. In this paper, the role of sensors in the field of mechatronics has been identified, followed by the characterization of different sensing technologies. The discussion of microsensor technologies, advantage of microsensors, and problems with microsensors together with multisensor fusion applications is presented. An example of a capacitive micro proximity sensor using micromachining technology developed by the Center of Robotics and Intelligent Machines at North Carolina State University is also described.     

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.     

Using mechatronics to teach mechanical design and technical communication

It is commonly accepted that hands-on experiences increase both learning and enjoyment during coursework. Mechatronics projects provide both interesting and relevant hands-on experiences for a wide range of topics including design processes, basic mechatronics concepts, technical communication, and working in a group environment. ME2110: Creative Decisions and Design at Georgia Tech integrates mechatronics and technical communication into a sophomore level mechanical design class. This paper describes the course in detail, highlighting the course goals and layout, tools provided to the students, industry involvement, and the main challenges of administering such a course.     

“微机电与微制造”课程多元化教学探索

《微机电与微制造》是本校机械电子工程专业的选修课。该方向前沿性强、发展速度快、国际化程度高,需要建立基础知识、工程实践、前沿发展紧密结合的课程体系,以适应行业和社会的发展需求。根据课程以及本校短学期设置的特点,本文对其教学内容、教学方式、实验教学和考核方式等进行了教学探讨,积极融入思政因素；发挥新时代教学特点,充分利用网络资源；采用多媒体教学、案例教学相结合手段,促进学生对微机电系统基本工作、制作原理的理解,培养学生的主动性、创新性、责任心,改善教学效果,实现立德树人、传道受业的教学目的。