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MECH_ENG 333: Introduction to Mechatronics


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Prerequisites

ME 233 Analog and Digital Electronics or EECS 221.

Description

team24aIntroduction to microprocessor controlled electromechanical systems. Interfacing sensors and actuators to computers, electrical and mechanical prototyping, dissection of commercial product. Final term project.

Who Takes It

This course is taken by engineering and computer science students interested in the design of microprocessor-controlled electromechanical systems.

What It's About

Introduction to the design of microprocessor-controlled electromechanical systems. Interfacing sensors and actuators to a personal computer and a single-board computer. Electrical and mechanical design, prototyping, and construction. Dissection of a commercial mechatronic product. Students work in teams to produce final computer-controlled electromechanical projects of their own design.

Minisyllabus

  • What is mechatronics?
  • Example systems and architecture.
  • Basic circuits review: current and voltage sources, resistance, capacitance, inductance, constitutive laws, Kirchoffs current and voltage laws.
  • Basic nonlinear elements: diodes and transistors.
  • Nonlinear circuit elements, The Furby (motor control).
  • Review of C programming.
  • Number systems: binary, hexadecimal.
  • Handyboard single-board computer.
  • Introduction to digital design and integrated circuits.
  • Sensors. Stepper motors. Actuators. Motor sizing.
  • Power transmission: gears (rack and pinion, spur, planetary, worm, bevel, crown, harmonic) and belt drives; torque, speed, and power equations, efficiency, inertia, reflected inertia, inertia matching.
  • Final project.

Labs

There are five scheduled three-hour labs, and the lab will be open around-the-clock to allow students to work on their projects at any time. 

Assessment/Evaluation

Labs, quizzes, homework, and final project.

Textbook

Embedded Computing and Mechatronics with the PIC32 Microcontroller, Kevin Lynch, Nicholas Marchuk, Matthew Elwin, Newnes 2015.

Other Sources

  • The Art of Electronics, second edition, P. Horowitz and W. Hill, Cambridge University Press, 1989, ISBN 0-521-37095-7.
  • Mechatronics: Electronic Control Systems in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, second edition, W. Bolton, Addison Wesley Longman, 1999, ISBN 0-582-35705-5.
  • Mobile Robots: Inspiration to Implementation, second edition, J. Jones, A. Flynn, and B. Seiger, AK Peters, 1999, ISBN 1-56881-097-0.
  • Mechanical Devices for the Electronics Experimenter, B. Rorabaugh, TAB Books (Division of Mc-Graw Hill), 1995, ISBN 0-07-053547-7.