Information About

Catalog description

Real-time operating systems, software control of electromechanical systems, mechanical design and construction, sensors, actuators, digital and analog electronics.

Prerequisite: None.

Who takes it

Open to qualified graduate and undergraduate students in all disciplines. ME 333 is a recommended (not required) prior course

What it's about

ME 433 provides hands-on familiarization with a professional toolset for real-time control of electronic / mechanical systems, useful in research or industry, including software, electronics, sensors and actuators.

The course meets in lecture format on Tuesdays, and in the Mechatronics Lab on Thursdays. Thursdays arelabs (weeks 1-5) and projects (weeks 5-10).

Link to 433 course pages

Lecture topics:

• Electronics: digital & analog refresher (chips and discrete devices), construction techniques: protoboard, solderboard, wire wrap, printed circuit layout
• Motor types, controllers; motor selection: inertia matching and other criteria
• Sensor types and sensor selection; sensor interfacing
• Processing platforms: handyboards/basic stamp, digital signal processors (DSP), singleboard x86 CPUs, programmable gate arrays, discrete digital chips, analog computation
• Software platforms:Real time operating systems, QNX, threads, timing issues, interrupts, interprocess communication
• Communication protocols: analog, serial RS232 and similar, DeviceNET, USB, Ethernet TCP & UDP

Labs (in teams of two):

• Instrumentation amps / op-amps / filters / analog computation
• Real time programming (C under the QNX real-time OS)
• Sensor interfacing (amplifiers, signal processing, ADCs)
• Encoders and motors.
• Design a digital circuit (referring to datasheets), prototype, printed circuit layout Projects (in teams of two):

Students will pick their own multi-week projects, using electronics, software, sensors and actuators, and usually requiring some mechanical construction.

Contact:

Professor: Michael Peshkin
e-mail: peshkin@northwestern.edu