Lab Overview

The lab portion of this course involves two primary components, learning mechatronics and programming using the Arduino platform and a design project which also involves using the Arduino platform. Note that there are a lot of great tutorials for the Arduino online. A few specifics that we’d like you to complete are linked below. Here are some links to a variety of others: Arduino.cc, ARDX, Smraza

Phase 1: Introduction (approximately 3 weeks)

The first few weeks of lab involve getting to know the Arduino platform through a series of lab activities:

• Part 0: Getting Started
• Part 1: Blink an LED
• Part 2: LED Array
• Part 3: Potentiometer and Servo
• Part 4: Stepper Motor
• Part 5: Ultrasonic Range Sensor
• Part 6: Design a custom circuit

For each of Parts 1-5, please make sure you do the following:

1. Construct the electrical circuit as shown in the tutorial.
2. Load the provided code onto your Arduino, see if it runs as expected.
3. Walk through the code line-by-line. What does each line do?
4. Now edit the code to make it do something different. What did you change and why? Did the change have the intended effect?

Phase 2: Design Project

The course project is intended to supplement and reinforce the topics that are discussed in lecture and to give you a real-world experience carrying out the engineering design process. Through this project experience you will have the opportunity to learn about electrical and mechanical design using a lab kit. You will participate in user-centered design which means you need to consider not only the technical requirements of the project but the environmental, social, and ethical implications of your design.