Training practical control skills in robot design project

Abstract

In today's industry and trade, there is an increasing demand for engineers who don't just have excellent competence in their field of specialization but also a good understanding and practical experience in working with engineering projects, and working as members of a team. These subjects are usually not adequately addressed in engineering degree programs. This paper describes our experience in teaching Control Theory as part of a robot design project. The disciplines like microprocessors, programming, digital and analogue electronics, mathematical modeling and simulation are also the elements of this course. Designing and building a small autonomous robot is also the motivating factor to learn mathematical control theory. The pass rate compared to the classical control theory courses increased from 60–70% to 85–95%.