Hands-On Robot Design in an Introductory Engineering Course

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

6-2003

Publication Title

2003 ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition: Staying in Tune with Engineering Education

Publisher

American Society for Engineering Education

First page number:

10191

Last page number:

10199

Abstract

Our course ‘Introduction to Engineering Design’ is aimed at freshmen students entering Mechanical and Aerospace engineering. The course is structured as a 2-credit lecture coupled with a 1-credit design laboratory. While the lecture presents an overview of the profession, engineering design and methods, small student teams conduct a structured hands-on design project in the lab. Each team develops an autonomous robotic vehicle to perform assignments such as terrain navigation or collection of objects. Students find the robot project highly motivating and voluntarily spend several afternoons weekly working in the lab. The design course ends with a competition among participating teams at the end of the course. Through the design project the students gain valuable experience in professional design, engineering practice, and teamwork. Additional course objectives are student recruitment and retention, i.e. we seek to attract a broader range of students, including those from underrepresented minorities, to the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering program.

Keywords

Engineering – Study and teaching (Higher); Engineering design – Study and teaching (Higher); Engineering laboratories; Robots – Design and construction

Disciplines

Higher Education | Mechanical Engineering | Robotics

Language

English

Permissions

Use Find in Your Library, contact the author, or interlibrary loan to garner a copy of the item. Publisher policy does not allow archiving the final published version. If a post-print (author's peer-reviewed manuscript) is allowed and available, or publisher policy changes, the item will be deposited.


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