Mechatronic Engineering

This module considers a range of material in the wider business development area. Students are encouraged to think with creativity, entrepreneurial flair and innovation. Practical sessions allow students to demonstrate their progress on a weekly basis through idea generation, peer presentations, elevator pitches and formal presentations. The module is accompanied by a number of external industrial speakers who have been successful in their own business endeavours and are keen to pass on that knowledge.

Students will become familiar with a rich mixture of experiential learning opportunities, that develop a wide range of transferable skills in the context of engineering entrepreneurship. The module will focus on the development and use of business plans and marketing strategies. Students will prepare a business plan, discuss team dynamics and the requirements for entrepreneurial activity. Additionally, the appropriate terminology to use when developing business projects will be explored. Students will discuss relevant aspects of company finance, uncertainty in business ventures and techniques for analysing markets. They will also examine frameworks for marketing and structuring a business plan and will develop the ability to analyse potential markets and sources of funding.

Whilst alternating topic focus, this module explores RF engineering and electromagnetic processes in general. Students will gain knowledge of RF engineering, the decibel scale, and will explore complex number review. Additionally, the module will cover AC circuit analysis, and will provide complex representation of waves and transmission lines, along with seminars in RF transmission of data and basic RF receiver architectures.

The electromagnetic portion of the module will cover Electrostatics, including electric charge, electric field, electric flux density and electrostatic potential. Students will develop knowledge of inverse square law of force, dielectric polarisation and permittivity, as well as capacitance, energy storage, parasitic capacitance and electric screening.

Students will develop the level of understanding necessary to describe the concepts of potential, charge, field and capacitance, and will learn to apply Ampere, Faraday and Coulomb law. Students will also gain an understanding of ferromagnetic materials, and will develop the necessary skillset to calculate the magnitude and direction of the electric field strength, as well as discussing Gauss theorem and the relationship of electric flux to electric charge. Finally, students will be able to carry out noise calculations for RF systems, calculate component values and transmission line dimensions to match impedances, and will gain knowledge in the application of Smith charts to analyse an RF circuit.

This module introduces students to numerate aspects of engineering. It is designed to provide students with a broad and flexible array of mathematical methods for the analysis of data and signals. It also intends to illustrate the essential role of computing in the application of these skills. Students will use calculus for the analysis of trigonometric, non-linear, polynomial and exponential functions, and will sketch multivariable functions with a relation to engineering on three-dimensional Cartesian axes.

Additionally, students will evaluate the significance of differential equations in the description of an engineering system and will apply methods such as Laplace, integration and substitution to find the solution of these equations. They will also develop the ability to analyse systems in both the time and frequency domain using Fourier and Laplace transformations. Students will learn to apply the spectrum of approximate methods that exist for finding the roots of equations, definite integrals and linear approximations.

The matrix representation of coefficients and their correspondence will be applied to arrays in software, including the use of manipulations such as the inverse matrix. Students will use the concept of least squares analysis in order to assess the consistency of data. Finally, they will develop the ability to use a software package such as Excel for multivariable analysis of a given function and to produce appropriate graphical outcomes.

This module introduces the subject of structural and stress analysis, and also covers mechanical vibrations. Students will develop an understanding of the physical behaviour of structural components and their design with reference to stress and deformations. They will also engage with mathematical and physical models for the analysis and design of statically indeterminate structures. In addition, the module encourages students to quantitatively analyse the behaviour of oscillatory systems with one or more degrees of freedom.

Students will learn to discuss the meaning and significance of the terms natural frequency, resonance and damping in relation to vibrating systems. They will also find the natural frequencies and, when there is more than one degree of freedom, the corresponding mode shapes for such systems. Students will gain a working knowledge of the essentials of mounting a machine so that only small force amplitude is transmitted into the foundation. An awareness of how an accelerometer works will be developed, including its advantages and disadvantages, and how to use it to measure vibration. Additionally, students will gain the ability to carry out two dimensional stress and strain transformation calculations, and will be able to calculate maximum shear stresses in shafts and beams subject to shear loads.

Students will be introduced to a range of key concepts in engineering project management and will put some of these into practice by means of an interdisciplinary group project. This module aims to motivate students to produce and test a functional electro mechanical machine to meet a given specification for example, the development of a mobile robot which follows a line. Students will develop a range of skills including, the ability to describe a mechanical/electrical system at the block diagram level, identifying its power and signal flows and writing an overall performance or functional specification. They will also acquire the knowledge necessary to integrate the functional requirements with other needs such as maintainability, safety, manufacturability, environmental impact and regulatory compliance. The requirements for interface management including spatial, mass, environment, control, failure modes, and energy, will also be discussed.

Additionally, students will develop the skill set required to prepare an interface management plan for a complete project and interface specifications for the subsystems/components. They will discuss the project lifecycle including specification, design, manufacture, commissioning, maintenance, modification and disposal. Finally, students will apply the principles of validating the design of a complex system using analysis, sample testing, type testing, commissioning, system tests and acceptance.

This module is designed to enhance students’ understanding of system dynamics and feedback at the block diagram level, by providing tools for the analysis of linear single degree freedom systems. Students will gain the ability to use appropriate instrumentation for feedback and data-logging purposes. The module will enable students to interface devices such as memory, digital IO and analogue IO to a microprocessor or microcontroller. They will also discover how to access such devices from within a program using C and/or Assembler.

On successful completion of this module, students will be able to develop single degree freedom models for simple mechanical, electric and electromechanical systems. They will also be able to discuss the assumptions necessary to develop such linear models and have an awareness of nonlinear and chaotic systems. Additionally, students will develop the ability to analyse 1st and 2nd order models in both the time and frequency domain, including vibrations and asymptotic stability. They will write down the transfer function of a system from its differential equation and understand the significance of the poles/zeros.

Further skills available on the module include the ability to manipulate block diagrams of open and closed-loop systems and the design of proportional, integral, derivative, velocity and multi-term controllers. Finally, students will construct and use Bode diagrams, and will develop the knowledge required to analyse the function and physical operation of a range of common types of transducer, e.g. for the measurement of strain, force, temperature and acceleration.

This module will enhance students’ knowledge of heat transfer calculations and aims to outline where these are essential to engineering design. Students will develop an understanding of electric power systems, including the characteristics of the main types of electric machine. In addition, they will gain the ability to estimate steady-state heat transfer rates and will be able to size simple parallel and contra flow heat exchangers. They will also develop the level of understanding required to estimate temperature distributions within 1-D or rotationally symmetric systems in which there is steady heat flow, as well as correctly sizing cooling fins.

Students will set up appropriate boundary conditions for 3-D heat conduction problems that are to be solved numerically using a software package and will estimate the time it takes for a thermal system to reach a steady state. Finally, they will be able to perform calculations to predict the performance of a single-phase induction motor and will be able to analyse the starting, speed and torque control methods used on induction motors.

This module will introduce digital logic design targeting programmable logic devices, in particular FPGAs: Field-Programmable Gate Arrays. Student will look at major steps involved in modern digital logic design development such as simulation, time and hardware resources optimisation, and floorplanning. The preferred programming language will be VHDL while target FPGA devices will belong to the Xilinx family. Students will gain practical experience of a widely employed vendor specific software development environment, such as Xilinx ISE 10.1 or Mentor Graphics ModelSim.

Additionally, the module introduces fundamental skills in digital logic design programming, development implementation and debugging, and students are given the opportunity to understand and use the concept of parallelism, along with developing instincts as to what design approach should be adopted, depending on the targeted application. Students will also acquire experience in using FPGA devices which are fundamental in ASICs development and verification.

On successful completion of the module, students will develop the ability to design digital logic circuits for a range of applications. They will apply state-of-the-art digital logic design development and verification methods, and will learn to use the most prevalent programming language in digital design for Programmable Logic Devices (PLDs), i.e. VHDL. Students will also gain the knowledge necessary to discuss PLDs in general and FPGAs in particular, including the major steps involved in digital circuit design development and implementation. Finally, students will gain the level of understanding required to use practical skills gained from hands-on experience of FPGAs containing development boards.

Introducing the fundamentals of materials engineering, this module addresses a range of topics including atomic bonding, the origins of the elastic models and elastic and plastic deformation mechanisms in crystalline materials. In addition, the module explores defects and crystalline imperfections, strengthening mechanisms in crystalline materials, Fe-C system and non-equilibrium phase transformations.

It will also address the effects of wear such as the nature of surfaces, describing and measuring surface form, static and kinetic friction, adhesive and abrasive wear regimes, and mechanical design. This section of the module will look at combined loadings, thin walled theory, yield criteria and failure mechanisms. Students will gain an understanding of the manufacturing processes and surface finish, tolerances, limits and fits, and will work with standard components such as rolling bearings, plain bearings and seals.

Students will develop the ability to classify the fundamental types of solid materials according to bond type, energy and physical properties. They will also learn to describe the unit cell types adopted by industrially significant metals, and will gain familiarity with the use of direction and Miller indices as a method of describing planar symmetry, and the crystallographic basis of anisotropy. Additionally, the module will enhance students’ ability to describe fundamental materials concepts of solid solutions, point defects, dislocations and atomic diffusion. Finally, students will develop an understanding of how finite element analysis is able to supplement the engineering design process, and will be aware of the need to validate the results of a finite element analysis.

Students will learn how to process signals using techniques such as Fourier transforms, sampling, discrete time and space domains, and digital filtering, putting their knowledge into practice in MATLAB software which equips students with comprehensive knowledge of digital code used in engineering environments.

This module develops students’ ability to analyse engineering problems by creating and designing solutions to meet real-world industry needs through a combination of critical thinking and hands-on practical skills.

Students will be equipped with a wide range of skills to determine the most appropriate sampling and filtering methods for processing signals whilst also developing their ability to write computer programmes for data analysis, creating recommendations and designing solutions.

This module examines the role of management and its relevance to engineering today. In this context, specific knowledge about manufacturing systems and project financial appraisal will be introduced, together with relevant aspects of law and human resource management, industrial organisation and project costing. Students will receive an outline of company finance and reporting, along with an overview of environmental reporting, quality and safety management.

The module will reinforce students’ understanding of the role of management in industry, as well as how modern manufacturing operations are organised financially. Students will financially evaluate both large and small projects as the basis for major decisions, and will develop knowledge of what quality is and its importance to all organisations. Additionally, students will apply suitable tools for the improvement of quality, and will come to understand the importance of environmental reporting. The module will also enable students to carry out a basic level of safety management.

The aim of this module is to give students experience in managing a research project and help them develop an in depth knowledge of a specific, specialist area of their subject. Students will have the opportunity to learn professional software, research, design or experimental skills consistent with their subject. They will be assigned a project title and a project supervisor who will guide and advise them throughout the project. The project involves the production of a literature review, project plan, an oral presentation, a final report and a poster.

The module will offer different outcomes depending on which topic students choose to work on. For example, they can gain knowledge of the scientific principles and methodology necessary to underpin their education in the engineering discipline.

Students can also acquire the ability to apply and integrate their understanding of other engineering disciplines, to support the study of their own engineering discipline. Alternatively, students are offered the opportunity to gain an understanding of engineering principles and the ability to apply them to analyse key engineering processes.

There will be an opportunity for students to apply quantitative methods and computer software, relevant to their engineering discipline, to solve engineering problems. On the other hand, students may decide to strengthen their understanding of customer and user needs and the importance of considerations such as aesthetics. They could also take the opportunity to reinforce their workshop and laboratory skills.

Students will develop skills in analysing some commonly occurring machine elements during this module. Discovering how these devices work to support and transmit force and load, leads to better decision making in their selection and use as a machine component, either individually or as part of a more complex assembly.

Over the course of the module, students will develop the level of skill required to establish the geometry of contacts between bodies, including relative radii of curvature. They will be able to estimate stresses and loads between bodies at such contacts, and will understand how to carry out calculations on involute gear geometry. Additionally, students will learn to carry out calculations involving gear trains including efficiency and inertia considerations, and will gain the knowledge necessary to estimate the load capacity of plain (hydrodynamic) bearings. They will also develop their understanding of how loads are carried by bolted joints.

This module aims to provide all students with a firm understanding of mechatronic and robotic systems. The robotics elements of this course encompass a wide range of robotics fundamentals, as well as an introduction to advanced topics including artificial neural networks, fuzzy systems and future challenges in vision systems. A real-time programming challenge is set to enable Bradley, a bipedal robot to walk. Students will be encouraged to consider the practicalities of selecting drive systems with respect to key engineering principles relating to pneumatic and hydraulic systems, exploring the benefits and disadvantages of fluid power systems and application of these to advanced robotics and automation.

This module aims to equip students with comprehensive knowledge and understanding of power electronics and applications by learning methods of converting and inverting voltage signals and how to use them to drive electric motors. As electric vehicles and renewable sources of power are becoming increasingly important, the module will also cover applications in electric power utilities and renewable power, including wind and solar.

Students will develop an understanding of scientific principles and methodology of power semiconductor devices, power electronic converters, dc/ac motor drives and the applications and needs for high power electronic switches/converters in the electric power utility industry.

On completion of this module, students will be equipped with industry knowledge to apply their skills to meet real world engineering needs with confidence and professional and ethical responsibility.

This module provides fundamental understanding of the principals involved in the design and analysis of complex mechanical systems. The aim of this module is to develop students’ skills and abilities in mechanics, particularly in relation to mechanisms and linkages, balancing of rotating and reciprocating machinery and inertia forces in mechanisms. Students will gain experience in kinematics and kinetics of mechanisms, including velocity diagrams and instantaneous centres. Additionally, the module will introduce rigid body dynamics and motion described in various co-ordinate systems, along with balancing rotating and reciprocating equipment.

This module will enable students to use principles of forces and moments equilibrium (with inertia forces) to estimate the forces acting on rigid bodies that are accelerating in two dimensions. They will also use kinematic principles to relate displacements and velocities of points on linkages of rigid bodies. Additionally, the module will enhance the ability of the students to find the location of instantaneous centres in a linkage. They will then learn to apply the instantaneous centre method to investigate the velocities of points on a linkage.

Students will learn how to find the velocity of any point of selected planar mechanisms using velocity diagrams and the velocity image theorem. They will also develop the necessary knowledge to find the acceleration of any point of selected planar mechanisms using acceleration diagrams and the acceleration image theorem. Finally, students will apply the idea of energy conservation to ideal systems.