Catalog Description: Design project course, focusing on application of theoretical principles in electrical engineering to control of a small-scale system, such as a mobile robot. Small teams of students will design and construct a mechatronic system incorporating sensors, actuators, and intelligence.

Units: 4

Prerequisites: EECS 16A, EECS 16B, COMPSCI 61A, COMPSCI 61B, COMPSCI 61C, and EL ENG 120.

Formats:
Fall: 1.5 hours of lecture and 10 hours of laboratory per week
Spring: 1.5 hours of lecture and 10 hours of laboratory per week

Grading basis: letter

Final exam status: Written final exam conducted during the scheduled final exam period

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Class homepage on inst.eecs

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Department Notes:

Course objectives: Capstone design project for seniors incorporating hardware and software design, as well as introduction to mechatronics for EECS. The course tries to minimize new topic coverage, but to show instead how fundamental principles taught in other classes are actually applied.

Topics covered: Course includes a written project proposal and progress report, as well as a final oral report on lessons learned from design and construction. Students work in teams of 2 or 3 , which can include EE, CS, or mechanical engineering students. Each team builds an autonomous robot vehicle which can follow an embedded wire at high speed. The path includes crossings and a sharp jog segment. Specific topics:

• Embedded controller architecture
• High current/high power design issues
• Battery, power supply, linear and switched regulators
• Motor models and velocity control
• PWM
• Ideal and non ideal op-amp design issues
• Sensing: magnetic field, optical velocity sensing
• Velocity and steering control, P, PD, PID, discrete time issues
• Vehicle steering kinematics, Matlab simulation
• Software architecture for real time systems
• Robustness including KeepAlive reset, error recognition
• Data collection and debugging strategies

Related Areas:

• Control, Intelligent Systems, and Robotics (CIR)