INCORPORATING THE FISCHERTECHNIK BRICKS INTO UNDERGRADUATE MECHATRONICS COURSES

Abstract

Mechatronics courses at the undergraduate level often consist of classroom and laboratory sections. The classroom section introduces the mechanics, devices and control techniques involved in the technology, while in the laboratory section, certain mechanisms like motor-gear sets or robot arms are prepared and students will implement controls by programmable logic controller (PLC) or other graphical-user-interface (GUI) tools over them. The mechanisms are fixed and compact and do not permit decomposition and reassembling, which prevents students from getting a real feeling of the whole system. To improve this, Fischertechnik bricks have been incorporated to aid the course. The Fischertechnik features that, in addition to the fundamental building elements, it includes mechanical elements like gears, wheels, electrical elements like actuators, sensors, which can easily be assembled to form a real industrial mechanism ready for control. Such a laboratory scheme goes through a complete flow including plant assembling, controller designing, and performance verification. Students are supposed to benefit in every phase through the course.