Education in mechatronics: modelling, simulation and control of a cartesian plotter

This paper presents one of the year projects proposed at Bergamo University to train the students of the course "Mechatronic Systems II", a 6 ECTS course delivered during the fourth semester of the Mechatronics curriculum. The main educational goal of this course is to provide principles and methods for the design of mechatronic systems and it is characterized by a large use of experimental activities. The project hereafter illustrated concerns a cartesian plotter driven by DC motors; the final goal of the device consists in drawing figures of any shape starting from a file in DXF format. The paper reports in detail each activity requested to the students, included the experimental validation, highlighting how this kind of "hands-on" approach allows students to reach competences on the design of mechatronic systems.