How to draw like a robot: Practical-case teaching in mechatronics

As an answer to the rapid evolutions of the demands of industry for versatile engineers, many Universities have created degrees in Mechatronics. The Sciences Faculty at Poitiers University offers courses in automation and machine design for more than 15 years, and we are trying to design innovating learning activities that merge the converging disciplines of mechanical design, electrical design and computer sciences. This paper presents an illustration of how knowledge transfer from research to teaching in higher education can provide practical cases to courses tagged as “complex” by students. Our aim was to have students develop part of robot control software that would implement the ability of an “Artist Robot” to draw with a simpler 2-rotationnal serial robot. The work has been divided into two parts. The first part is the design of the interpolator that will be committed to students in third-year degree license in engineering. In a practical work case, they will use the course of Introduction to Numerical Computing. The second part is PLC programming which will be performed by first year students of master's degree. They will have to implement the software to control a portable drawing robot, as part of a training activity for the industrial automation course.