Robotics competitions as motivator for project oriented learning in mechatronics

A project-based approach to educate mechatronics at the University of Ljubljana is presented. It combines the classical curriculum composed of various engineering subjects with project-based work. The emphasis is on ‘learning-by-doing’ with concrete projects. Doing this student teams design systems and manufacture mechatronic prototypes. Recently, one of the project offerings has been related to the Eurobot competition. Eurobot is an international amateur robotics contest open to teams of young people. Annually, a new specification gets published in September for the contest to be held in June the following year. The Eurobot specifications and its timing fit well into the mechatronics curriculum and the contest represents a real challenge as motivator for students. The two case studies presented include design, development and rapid prototyping. Experiences from the Eurobot competitions encouraged the authors to introduce a robotic competition in the Summer School on Mechatronics. It turned out to be a successful way to encourage students to study mechatronics. The approach is also considered to be implemented in South Africa. This can help raise technological awareness and hopefully create a do-it-yourself culture among the youth.