Robotics-Mechatronics Education aimed to train A Synthetic Ability

Abstract

As mechatronics consists of various engineering fields such as mechanics, electronics, information etc., it is one of the most important subjects for the engineering students to study. So, it is becoming a well-received curriculum in Japan, Europe and USA. Especially, for the manufacturing, mechatronics is one of the most suitable subjects. The “Department of Systems and Control Engineering” in Osaka Prefectural College of Technology has opened a course named “Case Study on Design of Mechatronics Systems” for these five years. In this curriculum, each student makes a robot in group. Through the robot-making in group, they learn not only “technical engineering” but also “solving method for problems”. Recently, it is said that the balance between “learning” and “humanity” in engineering education is very important. In other word, it is important for the students to understand the methodology for system configuration in the fields of not only hardware and software but also human-ware. This paper describes how the “Case Study” was performed and how the “humanity” was obtained in the group study.