Resumen de Development and implementation of didactic sets in mechatronics and industrial engineering courses

G. Ostojic, Stevan Stankovski, L. Tarjan, I. Senk, V. Jovanovic

• The collaborative design process supports the development of successful systems and products with a many participating engineers froma variety of disciplines. This kind of working environment lays stress on obtaining such multidisciplinary knowledge. Such effortsbecame an important element of capstone projects for students from different departments. This paper describes research related to theuse of didactic sets in a problem based classroom setting. These sets are designed and implemented by teams comprising students fromthe Mechatronics and Industrial Engineering departments. They are installed in the mechatronics lab at the Faculty of TechnicalSciences in Novi Sad, Serbia. The sets are used by students who are enrolled on a number of courses as part of their lab practice in theMechatronics and Industrial Engineering departments. These didactic sets enable the integration of knowledge gained from variouscourses. They help the students to understand the connections between different engineering fields. Some of the lab topics that can bedelivered with this kind of equipment are: electric motors, frequency controllers, Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC), fieldbussystems, and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems. The students are involved in problem-based learning duringhands-on activities such as making mechanical connections or wiring. Each didactic set consists of: an asynchronous three-phase electricmotor, a frequency controller, a PLC, different relays, pushbuttons, indicators, and wiring. Some of the most important learningbenefits are obtained through scenarios that simulate real industrial tasks and conditions.