tailieunhanh - Global J. of Engng. Educ., Vol.6 mobile mini robots for engineering education

In most modern countries, certain engineering tasks, such as the design of bridges, electric power plants, and chemical plants, must be approved by a Professional Engineer or a Chartered Engineer. "Only a licensed engineer, for instance, may prepare, sign, seal and submit engineering plans and drawings to a public authority for approval, or to seal engineering work for public and private clients."[19] This requirement can be written into state and provincial legislation, such as in the Canadian provinces, for example the Ontario or Quebec's Engineer Act.[20]. | Global J. of Engng. Educ. Published in Australia 2002 UICEE Mobile Mini-Robots for Engineering Education Klaus Schilling Fachhochscule Ravensburg-Weingarten - University of Applied Sciences Postfach 1261 D-88241 Weingarten Germany Hubert Roth University of Siegen Holderlinstr. 3 D-57068 Siegen Germany Otto J. Rosch Fachhochscule Ravensburg-Weingarten - University of Applied Sciences Postfach 1261 D-88241 Weingarten Germany Mobile robots provide a motivating and interesting tool to perform laboratory experiments within the context of mechatronics microelectronics and control. Students study this particular example in system design and integration tasks at different levels of complexity. This paper describes a set of workshops in which mobile robots were constructed in order to introduce students by hands-on experiments to mechatronic systems and control system design. This was tackled in combination with a teleoperations environment for rovers. Such tele-education experiments in the area of telematics are addressed in the paper as well as describing typical objectives the mobile robot hardware and the exercises performed within such robotics workshops. INTRODUCTION In industry engineers usually design equipment to perform given tasks while the particular technologies employed for the solution do not matter greatly. In contrast traditional university courses are related to the training of specific techniques. In order to bridge this gap a robotics workshop has been introduced into the final year curriculum of the Master course Mechatronics at the Fachhochschule Ravensburg-Weingarten - University of Applied Sciences FHR-W in Weingarten Germany. In response to the given tasks students have to develop a related system design of a mobile robot. The control system consisting of sensors actuators microprocessors and software is one key component. The students can select from different prefabricated electronic and mechanical components to generate their robots. A