BEng Electronic Engineering with Industrial Experience

Students will work in teams to create a battery-powered robot buggy. The robot will autonomously navigate around a track using one or more sensor types. The project culminates with a competition to find the fastest buggy.

A working robot buggy requires many technical skills to combine: a battery power source, gearbox selection, control circuits for motor drives, drive shaft encoders as well as an array of sensors and the software to control the robot.

The project also enables the development of team working and project management skills, which are central to modern engineering.

Project teams will be formed a mix of degree programmes and abilities

The Embedded Systems Project will begin in the first semester with lectures, laboratories and workshops which deal with topics such as:

•           Motors and sensors

•           Introduction to Software Design

•           PWM and the STM32 microcontroller

•           Control systems

•           Engineering Drawing

Additional Lectures will be organised on a year-by-year basis to reflect changes to the project.

The course unit aims to provide a practical introduction to microcontrollers and embedded systems.

ILO 1 Describe the steps involved in the specificaiton, analysis, design, implementation and testing of embedded systems.

ILO2 Generate engineering diagrams for manufacture.

ILO3 Analyse measurement errors when they occur during experiments.

ILO4 Design experiments capable of evaulating important preformance criteria of hardware.

IL05 Identify symptoms quickly and diagnose problems within a faulty system.

ILO6 Create elegant, maintainable and efficient program code. 

ILO7 Develop basic project management and team-working skills.

ILO8 Develop report writing and oral presentation skills.

ILO9 Develop a systematic approach to testing and debugging both hardware and software. 

Written feedback within two weeks of submission (Design Reports, Proposal Report, Final Report).

Technical demonstrations (verbal feedback, immediate)

Results released within two weeks of assessment (Blackboard Quizzes)