Andreja Rojko

International E-PRAGMATIC network for adult engineering education

This paper presents an approach to informal education of the professionals from electro-mechanical industry. The approach will be developed and tested within E-PRAGMATIC network (E-Learning and Practical Training of Mechatronics and Alternative Technologies in Industrial Community). The network is an association of 13 regular and 3 associated partners from seven European countries and is co-funded by the European Union Lifelong learning program, Leonardo da Vinci. The networks partners are the educational institutions, chambers, enterprises and associations. The main networks aim is to modernize mechatronics and engineering vocational training of the employed professionals, apprentices and trainees. Existing in-company training approaches will be updated. Where in-company training does not exist it will be established. Practically oriented learning modules with the remote experiments or an access to the remote working stations will be developed according to the actual needs of the industrial partners. The learning contents will be presented in the multi-lingual, multi-functional learning portal with an efficient learning management system. Beside the educational aims and objectives, also the E-PRAGMATIC international Community of professionals will be established. Within that Community, the information and expertise will be shared between the networks members and other stakeholders.

E-training in mechatronics using innovative remote laboratory

Abstract: This paper describes a novel E-training developed for teaching mechatronics. The training has been developed as part of the Leonardo da Vinci lifelong learning programs and MeRLab project (Innovative Remote Laboratory in the E-training of Mechatronics). The primary target group are engineers or technicians who have already completed formal education in the field of mechanical, electrical engineering or other technical fields, but have no knowledge of mechatronics, although their job requires it. For the training, special E-learning platform has been built in the user friendly environment, which is based on combination of commercial eCampus platform and open-source Moodle platform. The complete materials with the animations, graphical presentations, tests and the utilities such as discussion forums are offered. In addition to E-learning materials, the remote laboratory experiments are also available. The training has been executed with a group of 70 participants from Slovenia and second group of 6 participants from Austria. 90% of participants have successfully finished this quite extensive training. Results of anonymous survey show that they have evaluated the training as excellent and think that the gained knowledge will be useful in their further career.

Educational aspects of mechatronic control course design for collaborative remote laboratory

This paper addresses educational aspects of a distance learning mechatronic control course, which is one of the 18 courses that compound an international collaborative remote laboratory designed for students of electrical engineering. The work is undertaken in the frame of European Leonardo da Vinci project EDIPE ldquoE-learning distance interactive practical educationrdquo with a goal to offer Web based experimental courses to the students from 11 countries that participate in the project. Course presented in this paper is motion control of mechatronic device with nonlinear dynamics. Addressed topics are modelling of dynamics of mechatronic device, design of linear and nonlinear motion controllers, implementation and optimization of motion controllers for real mechatronic system. Three remote experiments are available as a part of the course: motion control of mechatronic device with cascade controller, motion control with PD controller and computed torque motion controller. For the course two educational strategies are developed; one for geographically distant students and one for local students. For geographically distant students the course is executed completely remote. For local students some parts of remote course are combined with traditional learning in the classroom and laboratory sessions in order to improve coursepsilas flexibility and to achieve best educational outcome.

Realization and experience of professional mechatronics e-training

It is becoming more and more common that the universities and vocational training schools offer training in different engineering fields not only to the students but also to the unemployed and employed professionals who have already finished their formal education but need new knowledge in order to cope with increasing demands of their jobs. This contribution describes how these demands in the field of mechatronics are meet in Slovenia by developing of a new kind of distance learning environment and distance training for vocational training of technicians and skilled workers from related engineering fields. The training is based on the high-quality e-materials, number of remote experiments on various mechatronic devices, practical tasks and tests and is executed completely online under the supervision of distance tutor. The training, which requires from participants at least 50 hours of intensive work effort, is organized into following logical modules: Introduction to mechatronics, Servomotor in mechatronics, Electrical circuits and Mechatronic devices. The pilot training was executed with 70 participants in March-April 2009. 90% of the participants have successfully finished the training since intensive tutoring has minimized the drop-out rate. Evaluation of the training, also presented in the paper, shows that the participants are highly content with the training and gained knowledge. They also think that the gained knowledge will be useful in their further career and will recommend the training to their co-workers and friends.

E-Training in Mechatronics for Professionals: Implementation and Experience

Mechatronics is in most of the European countries still the profession in which the need for competent and qualified staff exceeds the number of formally educated professionals. E-training in mechatronics presented in this paper is developed in order to at least partially fill that gap. MeRLab training (Innovative Remote Laboratory in the E-training of Mechatronics) offers innovative way for acquiring knowledge and skills in mechatronics by offering the high-quality educational materials enhanced by the remote exercises executed on various mechatronic devices and constant supervision of the training instructor. As a basic educational approach, the problem based learning was chosen. During the training this approach was stimulated by introducing a number of complex, practically oriented exercises that finish with the remote experiments. Pilot testing of the training was executed with 60 participants, mostly professionals from related fields such as mechanical and electrical engineering. Most of the participants are employed in the industry, while some were the teachers from secondary or high vocational schools. Feedback from the participants shows that overall response to the training is very good, as the majority of participants think that the training fulfils the goals, that the materials are clear and concise, that the exercises and tests are adequate, and, that the whole learning contents is excellent.

Experimentally oriented remote motion control course for mechatronic students

This paper presents experimentally oriented remote control course for mechatronics students that is available to the engineering students from 11 European countries. The course aim is to give students theoretical knowledge as well as necessary experience and practical skills for designing of the motion controllers for mechatronics devices. In the course all phases of the motion control design including modeling, simulations, and applied motion control design for linear and nonlinear controllers are given. Course is supported with e-materials and remote experiments. It is available as a part of international collaborative remote laboratory for E-learning Distance Interactive Practical Education project of Leonardo da Vinci program. In the paper the organization of the course as well its contents are described. Studentspsila feedback obtained by anonymous questionnaire is also discussed.

Sliding mode control of direct drive robot using fuzzy disturbance estimation

This paper presents a decoupled continuous sliding mode controller suitable for use in the motion control of uncertain nonlinear systems, as direct drive robots. A disturbance compensation problem is solved by a fuzzy logic system (FLS) with adaptive positions of output fuzzy membership functions. The stability of the adaptation procedure is given via the Lyapunov stability theorem. FLS is divided into three fuzzy subsystems according to the physical properties of robot dynamics. This structure results in a clear fuzzy rule base with a reduced number of rules and enables systematic inclusion of linguistic knowledge. Performance of the proposed method is illustrated by experimental results in a motion control task and positioning task with varying payload on a three degree of freedom direct drive robot.

Sustainable energy education: Hybrid electric vehicles

This paper presents an approach to lifelong education in sustainable energy technologies developed for two main groups of learners: (1) professionals from electro-mechanical (mechatronics) industry and (2) teachers/professors in technical and science programs from secondary schools. Multimedia, interactive e-learning material was prepared that both groups can use for self-education. Additionally, the teachers can use the material for education of their pupils. Nine comprehensive learning modules were prepared covering the following thematic areas: Solar Energy, Wind Energy, Hybrid Vehicles, Electric Vehicles and Energyfaving Light Sources. The modules were developed by the researchers/professors from 7 European universities, thus delivering up-to date knowledge in this field. E-learning material is available on a learning portal that has all functionalities necessary for supervised distance training and individual self-education. The learning experience is enhanced by virtual and remote experiments that enable better understanding of presented concepts respectively the acquisition of some hands-on experience. The learning module addressing energy storage in hybrid vehicles with virtual experiments is presented in more details.

Training of microcontrollers using remote experiments

Nowadays lifelong education is a necessity for all professionals from electro-mechanical industry. Creating of industrial training that delivers up-to-date knowledge with user friendly educational methods requests a close cooperation of industry and educational institutions. This paper presents results of project E-Learning and Practical Training of Mechatronics and Alternative Technologies in Industrial Community (E-PRAGMATIC) for 7 European countries. The need analysis and developed training will be described. The three courses: (a) Introduction to Microcontroller, (b) 8-bit Microcontrollers Advanced Course, (c) Low-cost platform to provide LAN / WAN connectivity for embedded systems, developed by University of Deusto, will be provided in case study format.

E-training for adult education in mechatronics

This paper describes e-training in mechatronics developed for the education of adults. The training was developed as one of Leonardo da Vinci life long learning programs within the MeRLab project (Innovative Remote Laboratory in the E-training of Mechatronics). The primary target group for the training are employed and unemployed engineers and the technicians who have already completed their formal education in some of the engineering fields, but are not acquainted with mechatronics. For the training special E-learning system was built in the user friendly environment based on eCampus and Moodle platforms. The complete materials with animations, graphical presentations, online tests and the utilities like discussion forums are offered. In addition to e-learning materials with the theory also remote laboratory experiments are available. Those experiments enable the user to acquire some practical knowledge and obtain some skills. The training comprehends four major topics: Introduction to Mechatronics, Servomotor in Mechatronics, Electrical Circuits and Mechatronic Devices. Pilot testing of the training was executed February-March 2009. From 70 registered participants 62 have successfully finished the training.