A Multidisciplinary PBL Robot Control Project in Automation and Electronic Engineering

This paper presents a multidisciplinary problem-based learning (PBL) project consisting of the development of a robot arm prototype and the implementation of its control system. The project is carried out as part of Industrial Informatics (II), a compulsory third-year course in the Automation and Electronic Engineering (AEE) degree program at the School of Engineering at Universitat Politècnica de València, València, Spain. The robot arm is a low-cost prototype, initially controlled with a joystick. The aim of the project is, first, to design and implement a full control system for the robot, including the necessary circuitry for microcomputer (ARM Cortex)-based control and, second, to pit the designed robot in competition against other students´ robots. Incorporation of multidisciplinary PBL required changes in the organization of the course, which features various learning activities and their continuous evaluation; it also required knowledge of five other courses in the AEE program. PBL methodology is compared to a traditional method; the results obtained proved highly satisfactory. Moreover, the PBL robotic experience was highly rated by some 900 students.