Utilizing Robotics In Teaching Microcontroller Programming To Manufacturing Engineering Students

This study presents the effort to add microcontroller content to an industrial controls course in a manufacturing engineering program. Industrial control courses in manufacturing engineering programs typically cover Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC’s). In addition to the PLC content, the author has added hard-wired and integrated-circuit (IC) based elements to his course over the past few years. The schedule now encompasses simple but effective microcontroller content. VEX Robotics Design System and its Easy C programming language were selected due to their simplicity and engineering students’ background in C++ programming. Students taking this controls course are assigned a simple fixed-goal task and work in teams to accomplish it. The task has been determined as navigating a rover robot through the department’s Learning Factory. In the process, they learn about microcontrollers, their integration with sensors and actuators, and utilize their programming skills in a practical control application. Moreover, by taking the course students are exposed to a variety of technologies including hard-wired logic, IC’s, PLC’s, Programmable Automation Controllers (PAC’s), and microcontrollers giving them the power of comparing and contrasting each element’s capabilities and utilization areas. This activity is also the only exercise for the manufacturing engineering majors to utilize their highlevel programming knowledge and skills in an engineering problem unlike the software engineering majors within the department.