Robotics and Mechatronics Education for Freshmen through Robot Competition

Abstract

The goal of our curricula is for students to learn so that they can truly use robotics and mechatronics techniques. To realize our outcomes, we regard “an interest for creation” by the students as an important educational method. In this paper, we proposed and tried the educational method for robotics and mechatronics creation using “their interest”, by holding a mobile robot competition. The robot consists of several vibration motors, a microcomputer and a motor driving circuit. The driving time of each motor is controlled by a microcomputer based on a sequential control program. In the training class, the students design the body of the robot using CAD, and also design the motor driving circuit and computer program by themselves. As a result, we found that students studied effectively by themselves to win the robot competition. We also confirm that the robot competition is a useful method to help students want to study the mechatronics technology by themselves.