PBL Program Producing Flying Robot in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department

Abstract

More and more mechanical and aerospace engineering departments of Universities and Colleges are adopting Project-Based Learning (PBL). One of the main purposes of PBL programs is the practical understanding of the relationship between classroom lectures on traditional theories, e.g., material mechanics, fluid dynamics, dynamics of machinery, and control engineering, and real phenomena of mechanical systems. Moreover, we need to take the use of recent digital manufacturing (e.g., 3D printers, CAD/CAM, and CAE) into account as recent educational content and methods. This paper introduces a novel trial of using PBL at Nagoya University. More specifically, the new program provides students with the experience of producing flying robots and introduces the above relationship and digital manufacturing.