| Week 1 | |
| Tues | What is mechatronics? Example systems and architecture. Basic circuits review: current and voltage sources, resistance, capacitance, inductance, constitutive laws, Kirchoff's current and voltage laws. |
| Wed | Lab 0: Assembling the PC/104 breakout boards, soldering practice. |
| Thurs | Basic nonlinear elements: diodes and transistors. Prep reading: A&H 2.1-2.5, 2.7, 3.1-3.4 |
| Week 2 | |
| Tues | Nonlinear circuit elements (cont). |
| Wed | Lab 1: Push-pull motor driver. |
| Thurs | Nonlinear circuit elements (cont) and operational amplifiers. |
| Week 3 | |
| Tues | Op amps, signal conditioning, and PID control. Prep reading: A&H Chapter 5. |
| Wed | Lab 2: Op amps, sensors, and closed-loop motor control. |
| Thurs | DC motor theory, controlling a DC motor, relays, pulse-width modulation, H-bridges. Closed-loop control with an encoder or tachometer. Prep reading: A&H Chapter 10. |
| Week 4 | |
| Tues | DC motor control (cont), intro to Simulink and xPC. |
| Wed | Lab 3: DC motor control with an encoder using the PC/104 stack, xPC, and Simulink. |
| Thurs | DC motor control (cont). |
| Week 5 | |
| Tues | Stepper motors, servo motors, PWM with xPC/Simulink. Prep reading: A&H Chapter 10.6. |
| Wed | Lab 4: PWM for DC motors; driving steppers and servos. |
| Thurs | Sensor gallery: emitter-detector pairs (photoresistors, photodiodes, phototransistors), limit switches and debouncing, Hall effect sensors, inductive coils, potentiometers, tachometers, absolute and incremental encoders, mercury tilt switches, etc. |
| Week 6 | |
| Tues | Motor sizing. Power transmission: gears (rack and pinion, spur, planetary, worm, bevel, crown, harmonic) and belt drives; torque, speed, and power equations, efficiency, inertia, reflected inertia, inertia matching. Prep reading: A&H 10.7. |
| Wed | Lab time: Project consultation. |
| Thurs | Power transmission (cont). |
| Week 7 | |
| Tues | Power transmission (cont). Linkages, cams, bearings. |
| Wed | Lab time: Project consultation. |
| Thurs | Digital design and integrated circuits. Combinational and sequential. A/D, D/A, counters, timers. Prep reading: A&H Chapter 6, 8.3, 8.4. |
| Week 8 | |
| Tues | Student project presentations. |
| Wed | Lab time: Project consultation. |
| Thurs | Digital circuits (cont). |
| Week 9 | |
| Tues | Electrical noise, isolation, grounding, shielding. Reading: A&H 2.9-2.10. |
| Wed | Lab time: Project consultation. |
| Thurs | Special topic. |
| Week 10 | |
| Tues | Special topic. |
| Wed | Lab time: Project consultation. |
| Thurs | Project review. |