A Task Based Approach to Mechatronic Systems Education
Keyword(s):
Hands On
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This paper describes an elective course in mechatronic systems engineering that is project based and team-oriented with hands-on learning. Working in small teams, students add electronic components to a mobile robot base and write the programs required to make the robot perform a series of tasks. Although the application of mobile robots as an educational tool in a mechatronics course is becoming the norm at many universities, the task based organization of the Queen’s mechatronics course is believed to have a number of novel features. The paper will review the pedagogy of the course, including aspects of the student workload, the interplay between teams, and the task based approach to marking and organization of the laboratories.