Development of Mechatronic System Integration Course for Senior Students in Mechatronics Engineering at the University of South Australia

摘要

Background: The courses of Mechatronics I (EEET 2044) and Mechatronics II (EEET 4060) have been offered with two separate curricula in School of Advanced Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineering, and the School of Electrical and Information Engineering at the University of South Australia since 1996. In Mechatronics I, students study the fundamentals of mechatronic systems aiming to identify and determine the key components of mechatronic systems. They also are involved in a group project to design and manufacture pseudo intelligent object avoidance and path following mobile robot. In the subsequent course of Mechatronics II, the concepts and skills of mechatronics are further extended with aims at raising the competency level in designing and implementing mechatronics systems involving the mobile robot system. However, within these two courses students would not become adequately familiar with the relevant practical industrial mechatronic systems. Hence, it was decided to introduce a new course; Mechatronic System Integration (EEET 3044) with the aim of developing a sense of systematic approach to solve industrial mechatronic problems for the students. Purpose: The major reason of investigation in this paper is to develop a systematic approach to introduce what an industrial mechatronic system is comprised of and how various electro-mechanical components can be integrated and work together. This is beyond what they have learnt before, since this course offers an opportunity to make a link between class room theory and industrial practice. It is also aimed to facilitate the graduates' transition from university as a student to industry as an engineer with focuses on their communication and technical skills. Design/Method: A new curriculum has been developed in association with replacing the existing mobile robot development projects by the Modular Production Systems (MPS) which was purchased from FESTO including distribution, testing, and storing stations. The MPS system was selected as part of this course after intensive search, visit and discussion on mechatronic laboratories at a number of universities including Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and Curtin University. Results: By implementing this course, students are expected to be more familiar with real industrial mechatronic systems and equipped with the ability to combine several modular systems into a whole integrated system, in conjunction with being able to incorporate a range of industry standard equipment and components. Also, through a continuous lab logbook practice during the course, students will be able to communicate effectively with others, which is at the core of what will be required as a professional engineer in their future career development. Conclusions: The new developed course for senior students in Mechatronics at University of South Australia will allow the students to be versatile with identifying, integrating, and debugging a large scale mechatronic system encompassing three significant tasks frequently used in industry with substantial development of their multi-disciplinary knowledge in mechanics and effective communication skills.