In 2003 a young and pink-haired punk rocker named Pete Martin decided that an undergraduate degree in Systems and Computer Engineering sounded like a cool idea, especially because of the opportunity to add on a specialization in Mechatronics. At the time, I was not particularly confident that I knew what mechatronics was, and to be honest decades later I’m only somewhat more confident.
A young engineer wondering what mechatronics is …
During the interviewing years I have routinely attempted to better define this discipline that I have chosen, if only to help others understand the potential power that can come from a well-crafted education in the mechatronic arts. Years later, building on a graduate degree in Space Mechatronics, years working as both a mechatronics engineer and engineering educator, and a podcast episode that tried and failed to get closer to a clear definition, I’ve decided that a clear and universal definition of mechatronics is not important. What is important, especially when it comes to the design of mechatronic learning experiences, is to lean into the universality of the skills and applications of mechatronics. The power of the mechatronics engineer is in their ability to design and build almost anything.
At Quanser, we took this ethos to heart from the very beginning. In 2003, as I was starting down my mechatronics path, the University of Waterloo in Canada launched one of the first mechatronics undergraduate programs of its kind. When the first graduating class was ready to take on the grand challenges of engineering, a select few came to Quanser and helped us to design our first mechatronics trainers. Their educational experiences, combined with our years of experience developing advanced robotic and autonomous systems help us to develop our ultimate goal in mechatronics education; to give students the skills they would need to work at a company like ours. To build complex electromechanical systems like robots, drones, and self-driving cars requires not only a specialization, but a level of interdisciplinary engineering literacy and design intuition that embraces the universal application of mechatronic design.
Most recently, we have been distilling our approach to designing the design trainers by focusing the product and courseware on the preparation of students for ambitious mechatronic design. I have always viewed the engineering design process as a series of decisions. “What motor should we use, a BLDC or cordless brushed DC motor?”, “What sensor is going to work best to localize, a TOF sensor, radar, or camera?”, etc. The better we can prepare students to make these decisions in a more informed and generalized manner, with as broad an experience base as possible, the better. This process of designing the design trainer culminated this year in the development of the Mechatronics Design Lab, featuring the Mechatronic Sensors and Actuators Trainers.
The Mechatronics Design Lab in action
Our approach to the trainers is focused on a set of core design-based outcomes that are essential to understanding the design of mechatronic systems; How electromechanical components are used to measure and actuate a system, how you select the right component for your application, and how you interface components together. Our learning activities are designed to align to two complimentary pedagogical approaches: scaffolding progressions where students combine components together into more and more complicated systems, and dissection activities where real-world mechatronic systems are deconstructed into their component parts to analyze the behaviour, design rationale, and interdependence of the subsystems. Ultimately, we hope that a learning experience based on our mechatronics trainers will prepare students for not only their own ground-up design challenges, but also their future careers in industry and academic research, wherever the mechatronics path takes them.
Keep an eye on our website and your inbox over the next few weeks, we’ll be diving deeper with more in-depth discussions and real-world examples on the Mechatronics Design Lab.
