Electronic pet robots for mechatronics engineering education: A project-based learning approach

To address the difficulties in teaching interdisciplinary subjects in engineering, this paper presents the process of developing a project-based mechatronics curriculum with the final artifact of an electronic pet robot. The curriculum was designed and implemented in a real mechatronics class for a semester in a university, and an evaluation study collected students' opinions on the effectiveness of this electronic pet robotic project-based mechatronics curriculum. The results of the study showed that the project increased student motivation, improved student performance, and gave students hands-on experience to develop skills in mechatronics system design. Students' responses to the evaluation study also demonstrated their positive attitudes towards the electronic-pet project-based learning, and the students also considered their teamwork to be successful.