A Problem Based Approach to the Teaching of Multibody Systems Techniques

The School of Engineering of the University of Bergamo, since many years, offers a traditional curriculum in Mechanical Engineering (bachelor and master). Recently, a new master’s degree with two curricula has been added: Mechatronics and Smart Technologies Engineering. The first curriculum combines traditional aspects of mechanical engineering with additional knowledge on electronics, automation and robotics, the second one adds competencies on manufacturing, building automation and human activities. The study plans of these curricula include, as elective, the course of Modelling and Simulation of Mechanical Systems. The course content is aimed to give the students the foundations of Multibody (MB) techniques applied to mechanical systems. Course topics are mostly theoretical, but in order to engage students and to give them more feeling with the industry problems, some applicative examples are developed and shown, during computer lab sessions, using MatLab and a commercial multibody software (MSC.Adams). Students, to pass the final exam, must be able to sustain an oral presentation involving both theory and practice, the last one consisting in a team project. During years, several projects have been proposed, the most recent ones regard vehicle modelling, in particular modelling of a race car (or of a subsystem of it) for student competition and modelling of a self balanced two wheeled vehicle. These projects have been chosen since vehicle simulations have a great appeal. In particular, motorsport is a topic that, in general, is very attractive and stimulating for the student. Because of this we had the idea, a couple of years ago, to add, as a project for Mechatronic System course (mandatory in Mechatronics curriculum), the design of the tractive system of a competition electrical vehicle, according to the rules of formula SAE. Students highly appreciated that subject and, at the end of the course, a group of them proposed to kick off a University Team to participate, as a first step, to the static events of Formula SAE Electric. Now a team, that is working on the project, has been established, with some smaller subgroups (mainly the ones focused on suspension and vehicle dynamics) necessarily involved in a MB approach. So suspension analysis and vehicle dynamics simulation have been chosen as projects of the Modelling course. Since also undergraduate students participate to formula SAE activities, a tutorial on both MB theory and practice (simulation software) has been prepared and delivered to them. The project regarding the self balanced vehicle requires a more “mechatronic” approach since, being the mechanical system inherently unstable, vehicle simulation requires the design of a control system that has to be included in the model. Therefore, a cosimulation approach, interfacing MatLab with Adams, is needed. Moreover, it has been proposed, as a project option, to add the driver to the model in order to introduce the human-system interaction. For both projects, we got a very positive feedback from the students. The material that the students have prepared for the exam were of very good quality and accuracy, denoting a positive involvement. The paper describes the steps taken to train the students for these projects and the results that have been obtained.