A Systems Approach to a Final Year Mechatronics Design Course

摘要

Mechatronics is the science that studies the holistic design process in which intelligent machines are created to develop efficient and complex processes and products. Mechatronics integrates mechanics, electronics and computer sciences to achieve control and automation. The effective integration of these different components is a complex task that should he accomplished in the design phase. This work presents a systems approach to a mechatronics design course at ITESM, Mexico. In their final year, engineering students are taught a methodology to design a mechatronic product. The methodology includes: the early stages of clients' needs identification, process characterization, literature review, and ideas generation, which lead to both the design and simulation of the mechanical, electronic and control stages. This series of steps is inspired in a number of different design methodologies, which are available from the literature and can be adapted to the available tools and circumstances at the university. This paper describes a practical way to integrate the existing specialised techniques and tools to generate an efficient design of a mechatronic product. Some of the virtual tools that are available to design, evaluate and integrate the different parts of a mechatronic design are also discussed. The systems approach was applied by the students to different mechatronic projects in industry, thus creating good links between university and manufacturing companies with satisfactory results. One of the numerous case studies is described in this paper as well as its outcomes, to provide evidence of the educational value of the methodology.