Course syllabus
Quick links: Lectures & Exercises, Lab & home assignments
Kurs-PM
SSY300 Applied Mechatronics (Tillämpad mekatronik)
The course is given by the department of Electrical Engineering (Kursen ges av institutionen för Elektroteknik)
Division of Systems and Control (Institutionen för signaler och system), EDIT hus, Hörsalsvägen 11, våning 5 öster
Contact details
Examiner and lecturer: Nikolce Murgovski, nikolce.murgovski@chalmers.se, EDIT-huset room 5408 (available by appointment)
Course assistant: Yixiao Wang, yixiaow@chalmers.se, EDIT-huset room 5339 (available by appointment)
The teaching assistant will be available for consultancy according to the supervision schedule.
Department administration: studadm.e2@chalmers.se
Student representatives
Comments and suggestions for improving student learning in this course may be discussed with the student representatives. They will compile all suggestions in an anonymous report and we will discuss them during the mid-term course evaluation meeting. The meeting took place on 2022-04-07.
Aron Eriksson Uggla
Victoria Ljungqvist
Susanne On Huang
Abbas Ammar Abbas Razocky
Caroline Schröder
We have also pinned a Discussion item, Leave a comment!, where you may leave a public comment about the course.
Course description
The course aims to provide an introduction to mechatronics - the integration of sensors, actuators and computers with the mechanical system. It provides knowledge on how the most common sensors and actuators work and its underlying physical principles. It also provides introduction to microcontrollers and their programming, and provides practical experience in the design of micro-computer-based systems.
Lectures are designed in a problem-based style, addressing the main building blocks of a generic mechatronic module.
The mechatronic module is also used as the course outline, wherein different components and links are highlighted when being addressed on lectures.
With the goal of encouraging learning for understanding, lectures are followed with swift questions from the taught material and recognition tests for electronic components. The lectures include designated slides for cognitive activation focusing on material taught previously, and a quiz on the new material to be taught during the lecture.
One of the goals of this course is to enable teamwork and creativity. All assignments, except the final exam, are performed in groups of two students, and a forum is organized during one of the supervision sessions where you may exchange ideas and ask questions while discussing within a larger group.
Schedule
For a tentative schedule, please see the Calendar or Course summary here TimeEdit_SSY300_Applied_mechatronics.pdf .
Scheduled events can also be seen in TimeEdit.
Course literature
Introduction to Mechatronics and Measurement Systems, 5:ed (4:ed and 3:ed are also ok)
David G. Alciatore, Mcgraw-Hill. (The book is sold at Cremona.)
Link: http://mechatronics.colostate.edu (Links to an external site.)
Course structure
The course is organized in three parallel branches; 1) a fundamental knowledge taught through lectures, 2) offline recorded problem solving sessions and 3) a design project, where students, in groups of two, build a robot and perform several tasks. Supervision sessions are booked roughly twice per week.
To enhance learning while balancing workload, some of the book material has been excluded from the course or from the final exam, and other has been covered through the lab/project sessions and home assignment.
- Chapter 5 has been completely excluded from the course.
- Chapter 1, Chapter 7 and Chapter 11 will be partly covered, but will be excluded from the final exam.
More details are provided in Lectures & Exercises.
Lectures
The lectures, 2*2 hours per week, aim to motivate and introduce the topics covered by the texts. The lectures will be structured somewhat differently to the course textbook, and also include additional material.
The lectures will be held in a hybrid format, i.e., both ON CAMPUS and online via ZOOM. The following Zoom meeting will be used for the online sessions:
https://chalmers.zoom.us/j/68362654836, Password: 464952
Slides, video recordings and other materials are available in the Lectures & Exercises or in Files/Lectures.
Exercise/Supervision sessions
The exercise sessions will be given through a combination of inverted classroom and repetition/supervision on campus. Following the inverted classroom principle, you will be required to watch videos that have been recorded previously.
Sessions are also scheduled on campus, normally 2x2 hours per week. The teaching assistant will repeat/summarize selected problems from the videos, and will be available for answering questions on individual problem solving. Attendance is not mandatory, but it is strongly recommended.
Forum and supervision of home assignment will take place during the supervision session on May 3, 15:15. You will have a guided discussion by the teaching assistant and will have the opportunity to exchange ideas within a larger group.
Project work
During the project, you will go through the document Shield-Bot-manual-v1.1.pdf and implement activities and challenges as described in the document. For the questions on programming, you may consult the lecture on programming, or you may directly check the results in Arduino or its emulator at https://www.tinkercad.com/. Other material that facilitates the project assignments can be found in Files/Project. You will work in groups of maximum two students; the same group working on the home assignment.
The lab is located in the M building, rooms MT11, MT12, MT13 (and MT9 at one occasion, check TimeEdit). For borrowing and returning equipment, the first and last session, we will also use the lab in the EDIT building, room 5225 (previously 5220), 5th floor. The lab is booked on Wednesdays, 13:15 to 17:00.
NOTE! Always turn off the power to the equipment when building or modifying your electrical circuits to avoid short circuits or damage the equipment. Turn the power switch to 0, unplug the USB cable and the cable from the battery pack.
NOTE! To conserve battery power, always plug out the cable from the battery pack when not in use.
All projects tasks should be demonstrated to the teaching assistant during lab sessions. Don't wait until the last sessions before deadlines!
Changes since the previous course meeting
- Problem solving sessions are used both for problem solving and for supervision. Prerecorded videos have been generated for all problem solving sessions.
Learning outcomes
- Discuss the possibilities and limitations of mechatronics and reflect on its impact on people and society as well as on product development.
- Gain basic knowledge on design of microcomputer-based systems, including programming in C.
- Understand simple electrical circuits in a system perspective, including typical electrical components, such as resistors, capacitors, inductors.
- Understand the differences between direct and alternating current.
- Understand how active electrical components operate, especially diodes and transistors.
- Gain basic knowledge on digital theory and logical components, especially logic gaits and flip-flops.
- Understand the principles of how electrical actuators operate, especially DC motors.
- Understand the principles for measuring and controlling a simple mechatronic system.
- Gain understanding on how sensors work and be able to explain the advantages and disadvantages of various sensor types.
- Select a suitable electric actuator and gearing to a mechatronic system.
Examination
In order to pass the course, you will need to complete the project work, one home assignment and pass a written exam.
Project work
The aim of the project is to gain basic knowledge on programming microcontrollers, electrical circuits and components, sensors and logic/control. The project work directly addresses learning outcomes 1, 2, 3, 8, 9 and contributes in learning part of the outcomes 4, 5 and 7.
In order to pass the project work, you will need to complete 5 out of 6 tasks and return the borrowed platform. It is required that you solve the assignment within a group of 2 students and show/demonstrate the solutions to the course assistant.
Home assignment
The course includes one home assignment solved in groups of two students. The goal is to design and select an electric motor and a gearbox to a mechatronic system. The assignment is solved on your own but a supervision session is scheduled and a forum is organized where you may exchange ideas and ask questions. The home assignment addresses learning outcome 10, which gathers the knowledge learned from the previous outcomes.
In order to pass the assignment, you need to collect at least 16 points out of 20; otherwise, you will be given one more week to re-submit it. No grades are given, just pass or fail.
Written exam
The course includes one written exam that consists of questions that add up to 25 points. Questions will be selected from the mandatory course material that relates to learning outcomes 3 to 10. The mandatory book sections are listed above under each of the lectures. The answers must be motivated and all steps in the solutions explained. Preliminary grade thresholds are: 10/15/20 for grade 3/4/5.
Allowed items:
• The course book (or a copy from it).
• Beta Mathematics Handbook and/or the collection of formulas.
• Any calculator.
• Dictionary.
Examination date:
2022-05-28, 08:30 -12:30, Johanneberg.
First re-examination date:
2022-08-16, 14:00 -18:00, Johanneberg
Second re-examination date: information will be added later.
Link to the syllabus in the Study Portal: Studieplan
Course summary:
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