Developing an Affordable and Reconfigurable Experimental Platform for Teaching Engineering Lab Courses

A practical understanding of theoretical engineering concepts learned in the classroom is critical to a holistic education experience. Engineering teaching labs provide an avenue for students to apply theories learned in the engineering classroom to real-world scenarios. Although teaching labs can greatly enhance the course experience, a common hindrance in developing an effective lab course is selecting an affordable experimental platform. The lab development cost can increase significantly depending on the number of lab courses and the number of seats required. Therefore, it is important to develop reconfigurable platforms for multiple courses and reduce overhead cost. In this paper, we develop an affordable and reconfigurable experimental platform, which can be used to teach topics in multiple courses. The proposed platform can be reconfigured to administer topics in mechatronics, controls, computer programming, and robotics. For our design, most of the platform is made from plywood that is laser cut for low cost rapid fabrication. The National Instrument (NI) myRIO embedded device is used to interact with actuators and sensors. Programming of the NI myRIO is accomplished using the NI LabView software. To connect different sensors to the NI myRIO embedded device we design a breakout board making it easier to interface with the embedded device. Sample experiments in controls and robotics are provided in the paper to highlight how the platform could be used to teach topics in multiple courses. Due to the affordable and reconfigurable design, this platform can also be used to teach science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) concepts at various levels of education. Developing a low-cost yet effective experimental platform that can be leveraged for use in multiple topics encourages students to become critical thinkers while employing the skills learned in the classroom.