Integrating Instrumentation and Mechatronics Education in the Mechanical Engineering Curriculum

A diverse and effective undergraduate mechanical curriculum should integrate learning from the different spheres of mechanical engineering, educate students about recent technological advances, and motivate them to pursue careers in this field. However, a seamless integration of varied topics in mechanical engineering curriculum is challenging, as courses range from traditional engineering classes in thermal fluids, solids and controls, to courses covering emerging technological aspects of instrumentation, sensors, measurement techniques, advanced control algorithms, electronics, and electrical components. Mechatronics is a newer branch of mechanical engineering that is a synergistic combination of mechanical, electrical, electronics, computer science, control techniques, and information systems. Integrating mechatronics content in mechanical engineering curriculum has been a challenge since it has been viewed as a significant deviation from traditional courses. In the past, pedagogical approaches like semester-long, project-based classes, or linking mechatronics to other engineering disciplines, have been used to integrate mechatronics into the mechanical engineering curriculum, with varying results. Furthermore, teaching an interdisciplinary class of this nature within a semester is a difficult pedagogical endeavor. To overcome these issues, the topics and concepts in the measurement laboratory/lecture (ME 335/L) and introduction to mechatronics (ME 435/L), a traditional mechanical engineering course, are interlinked to provide students with a unified learning experience. As a first step in this direction, ME 335/L was made a prerequisite to ME 435/L, which allowed the students to learn about the fundamental topics in ME 335/L, and thus be prepared to tackle more complex topics in ME 435/L course. The ME 335/L was redesigned to incorporate more tools, instrumentation, and programs typically used in ME 435/L. The key experiments in ME 335/L were tailored to expose students to topics commonly encountered in ME 435/L. This integrated approach to mechatronics allowed students to build a strong fundamental understanding of data acquisition and measurement systems, and enabled them to utilize these theories and principles in ME 435/L. Although some topics are repeated in both these courses (ME 335/L and ME 435/L), the contents become more advanced and in-depth in ME 435/L. The experiments in ME 435/L were redesigned such that the students used the fundamental concepts and modern tools taught in ME 335/L in more challenging projects to reinforce the foundation of instrumentation in design of a mechatronics system. This allowed students to develop their critical thinking and problem-solving skills, which are crucial for building successful careers as mechanical engineers. Introduction Mechatronics is a blend of mechanical, electrical, electronic, computer control and information systems as seen in figure 1. This course is made up of measurement systems, drive and actuation system, control system, microprocessor system and computer system that are required to create more functional and adaptable products. As mechatronics is multidisciplinary in nature, proper design of the hands-on experience is crucial for the success of the educational experience. Figure 1: Interdisciplinary nature of mechatronics All instruments, equipment, and appliances used by us incorporate scientific knowledge and know how from the fields of engineering. It is of paramount importance that mechanical engineering students have an in depth understanding of Mechatronics, and it has therefore become a core mechanical engineering course in engineering curricula throughout the world. However, this has led to a pedagogical challenge for teachers as students need to be taught complex fundamentals and theories combining a wide range of topics from statics, kinematics, controls, and electrical/electronics engineering . The complexity related to teaching mechatronics is further amplified if the syllabus includes an applied project where a clear understanding of programing languages like LabView or Matlab is crucial. These factors directly influence the learning outcome of the mechatronics course and limit students’ ability to master crucial concepts in this class . Teaching mechatronics course requires skills in all of the areas, which is hard to master. In our current institution, this course was developed with mostly electrical projects similar to fundamental electrical laboratory course. As the technology is changing and demand for mechatronics concepts are increasing, re-evaluation of the projects became important. To address these challenges, a unique approach has been adopted in the Department of Mechanical engineering at California State University Northridge. A preexisting junior level course, Measurement Lab/Lecture (ME 335/L), has been redesigned to serve as the prerequisite for the Mechatronics Lab/Lecture (ME 435/L) class. The topics covered in the traditional ME 335/L course are tailored to better prepare students for tackling advanced topics in the ME 435/L. Furthermore, the topics covered in the ME 335/L class will be streamlined to introduce students to the necessary skills required to grasp fundamental topics in the ME 435/L class. The two faculties teaching the respective courses combined their learning objectives and modified the projects such that the students get to learn the similar fundamentals but the application levels changed. The expected outcome of this modification is two fold. Firstly, it will ensure that students are well prepared when progressing to the ME 435/L course. Secondly, it will improve the learning outcomes and students’ ability to analyze complex engineering systems in the ME 435/L course. In the following sections, the key learning objectives for both these courses, modified course structures, and metrics for evaluating course modification, are discussed in detail, followed by conclusion and future plan. Learning Objectives ME-335/L and 435/L are aligned to several key ABET outcomes and hence are crucial courses for the Mechanical Engineering (ME) curriculum. Both these courses provide students with theoretical knowledge and hands on experience. The ABET outcomes for ME-335/L class are as follows: 1. an ability to apply knowledge of mathematics, science and engineering, outcome (a), 2. an ability to design and conduct experiments, as well as to analyze and interpret data, outcome (b), 3. an ability to communicate effectively (3g1 orally, 3g2 written), outcome (g), and 4. an ability to use the techniques, skills, and modern engineering tools necessary for engineering practice, outcome (k). In addition to ABET outcomes in ME-335/L, the Mechatronics course (i.e., ME-435/L) is mapped to ABET outcome (c), which focuses on students’ ability to design a system, component, or process to meet desired needs within realistic constraints such as economic, environmental, social, political, ethical, health and safety, manufacturability, and sustainability. Since both these courses are mapped to the same ABET outcomes, they can be streamlined and treated as a sequence of courses in the ME program. The faculty members teaching these classes have streamlined the course content of ME-335/L so as to better prepare students for the ME435/L course. Course Structure ME 335/L Instrumentation All junior level students are required to enroll in ME 335/L. Therefore, ME335/L serves as an ideal course to introduce to the principles of measurements, data acquisition, sensors, and programming tools. This class is traditionally focused on fundamentals of experimental design, uncertainty analysis and propagation, behavior of measurement systems, and data analysis tools and techniques. These topics do allow for direct mapping of the concepts taught in class to ABET outcomes as discussed in previous section. However, in order to streamline the course structure to better prepare students for ME 435/L, the existing course topics in ME 335/L have been redesigned. It was a challenge to significantly modify the ME 335/L course content to shift focus to the mechatronics component while maintaining the original intent of the course. Our objective is that students should have developed a deeper understanding of and familiarity with LabView, sampling principles, and spectral analysis methods, as they progress to ME 435/L class. With this in mind, an exhaustive introduction of LabView has been included in ME 335/L. A sequence lecture has been developed to familiarize students with programming philosophy and fundamental concepts. Furthermore, a sequence of handouts has been developed with examples and guidelines, which is provided to ME 335/L students during the first week of the class. In order to enable students to have practical insights into the topics pertinent to measurement principles, a sequence of LabView programs have been developed, a sample of which is presented here. One of the most important concepts that students are expected to grasp in ME 335/L and be aware about in the mechatronics course is the sampling theorem. The sampling theorem may hold very little or no value to a students who are exposed for the first time to data acquisition systems, and sometime this concept is tough to illustrate in simple measurement experiments. Therefore, a simple LabView program has been developed to generate analog sinusoidal signal of 10 Hz, and is displayed using a waveform chart in LabView. A screen shot of the LabView program is shown in Figure 2. A sampled signal showing varying sampling frequency is also shown in the LabView waveform chart. Through this simple LabView program, students can visualize the impact of sampling parameters on the sampled signal. This program has therefore been very effective in helping students to visualize the concept of sampling frequency. Figure 2: LabView screen shot demonstrating impact of sampling frequency on the a