Lecture 3-1 Introduction to Sensors and Sensing

We overviewed the key elements of a mechatronic system and discussed about the role of sensors in mechatronic system.

At first, we studied human sensing capacities and sensors inspired by human sensing capacity. We extended our knowledge with animal sensing capacities and compared them with human sensing capacities.

We reviewed the existing sensors and classified them in terms of what they are and how they work.

Common characteristics of sensors in terms measured values were covered and interfacing were briefly explained. The role of sensor calibration (offline and online) were emphasized.

Mini-project 2 released

The mini-project 2 has been released. Click on this link!

The deadline for submission: Monday, November 05, 2:00pm

Demo and Q&A: November 06, 2:30 at Lab 212

Lab 2-1 Principles of actuators and its drivers

Click on Lab assignments to access Lab 2-1.

Note that this lab is to set the foundation for your mini-project 2, so you should follow the guidance and hints to complete all the requirements. 

Lecture 2-2: Principles of Actuators and Drivers

We have studied the electromagnetic principle for generating forces/motion of actuators.

The working principle of a DC motor was illustrated. The relationship between the current and torque, torque and speed was explained.

The key driver, named H-bridge, and PWM control signal for DC motor was introduced and analyzed. In addition, we introduced the working principles of DC motors and Stepper motors, and how to control it, especially with Arduino board (using PWM signal generated by the Timers/Counters).

Lab exercises will be given to strengthen learnt knowledge.

Lecture 2-1: Introduction to Actuators and Drivers

We moved to the Module 2 to learn basics of actuators and their drivers.

In the first lecture, we studied the definitions and concepts of actuators. We now know fundamental knowledge of types and working principles of actuators, and compare their advantages and disadvantage in operations through real-world examples.

We will learn how to control different types of actuators in the Lecture 2-2.

Mini-project 1 released!

Mini-project 1 (very tasty but spicy project :) has been released. Click on this link! 

You are recommended to carefully read through the requirements. 

You should also pay attention to the deadlines for the submission and demo. 

Today's lab (Oct 09) is reserved to help you understand and start working with this mini-project. 

Lecture 1-7: A simple computer

We have summarized knowledge learnt from lecture 1 to 4 in order to understand how a CPU works.
In general, ISA are used by CU to control all operations of the CPU, e.g load data from registers, then select the bus to transfer it to ALU or Shifter for computational operations, and then transfer back to another register. We also discussed about functional blocks of a CPU in details.

We have also discussed about the value of Assembly language in terms of machine language as well as code debugging. 

Lecture 1-6: Arithmetic computation

We studied an important lecture of Module 1 about how an ALU of CPU is built up and functioning.

The key components such as half-adder and full-adder are introduced. An example of 4-bit Ripple-Carry Binary Adder (RCBA) is illustrated to show how a computer can do Addition in general.

Complement concept is refreshed to remind about how to do subtraction, then a RCBA-based circuit for both Addition and Subtraction is introduced. Based on the circuit, other functional circuit such as incrementer/decrementer, multiplier/dividers are discussed. 

Lecture 1-5: Digital circuits and combinational logic circus design

We have completed the lecture 5 - Digital circuits and combinational logic circus design.

In this lecture, we have learn how to build up an integrated circuit (functional circuits) from seven primitive logic gates (AND, OR, NOT, NAND, NOR, XOR, XNOR). 

We have also studied how to build up the key functional integrated circuits (Enablers, Selectors, Decoders, Multiplexers, etc) from the primitive logic gates and inherit them to build up larger circuits, e.g. 3-to-8 decoder, multiplexers. 

Lecture 1-4: Number Systems

In this lecture, we learnt the following topics:
- Decimal, Binary, Octal, HexaDecimal number systems and the conversion between the number systems. 
- Four standard arithmetic computations and their computational operations. 
- Complement of a number in a r_base system
- Several examples of 1s and 2s complement to illustrate their implication in computer systems.
- The relationship between the 1s and 2s complements.

Lab 1-4

Click on Lab assignments to access Lab 1-4.

I highly recommend you to complete Lab 1-3 if you haven't done it.