Topic outline

  • General

    Atlas robot


    Corona pandemic info

    Due to the pandemic, the course will be completely arranged remotely in Microsoft Teams. Using Teams is mandatory to participate - all the teaching related to Lectures and Exercises will be there. Instructions for remote tools can be found in "Instructions for Teams and Matlab installation". 

    Course personnel

    Responsible teacher, lecturer: Raine Viitala

    Main assistant: Ivar Koene

    In cases of any questions or issues, please use the general discussion forum, or contact the teachers directly via email.

    Introduction of the course

    The course is arranged during only one period. This means 5 credits worth of studying, i.e. nominally 135 hours, during seven weeks. Therefore, be prepared to allocate enough time for the lectures and the exercises in your calendar. The course starts with the first lecture on Tuesday 27th of October and the final exam is 10th of December.

    This course is, as its name suggests, a basic level course which covers a very wide area of subjects in as much detail as we have time for. This course does not have official prerequisites, however, some understanding of electrical and mechanical engineering is required to successfully pass the exercises and to follow the lectures. These basics are not taught on this course. The first introductory exercise round will have basic exercises about electrical engineering (Ohm's law, Kirchoff's law, inductance etc.) and mechanical engineering (gears, kinetic energy, inertia etc.) to ensure that everyone has at least some knowledge of them. If you have never heard of these concepts, the course book has a very good and short basic electrics chapter and the equations for the mechanics can be found in the equation collection in the Other material page in MyCourses.

    The course book is Alciatore & Histand: Introduction to mechatronics and measurement systems. We will not follow the book; however, it is a relatively good book covering all the subjects of this course. If you do not have the book, you will have to rely on the lecture slides, which do not have all the necessary information, and all the available internet resources.

    The exercises in this course contain calculations, simulations and essays. Simulation exercises are emphasized since they can give a good understanding of the dynamics of a complex system. The simulations are conducted using Matlab Simulink, which indicates that previous experience with Matlab and/or Simulink will make your life easier but is not required. The weekly exercises are the most important part of this course and thus passing most of the weekly exercise rounds is mandatory in order to pass the course. Last year, according to the feedback, solving the weekly exercises took on average almost nine hours per week. Be prepared for something similar.

    Remember to enroll into the course in Oodi on time. Enrolling is possible between September 28th and November 2nd. Check also the Exercise and MyCourses instructions in Other material page.