The module descriptors for our undergraduate courses can be found below:
- Four year Aeronautical Engineering degree (H401)
- Four year Aeronautical Engineering with a Year Abroad stream (H410)
Students on our H420 programme follow the same programme as the H401 spending fourth year in industry.
The descriptors for all programmes are the same (including H411).
H401
Mechatronics
Module aims
From aircraft autopilots to satellite communications to re-usable space rockets, mechatronic systems are everywhere in aeronautical engineering. This course aims to give a fundamental grounding in the theory and practice of mechatronic systems relevant to aeronautics, including data acquisition systems, sensors, actuators and control systems.
Learning outcomes
On successfully completing this module, you should be able to:
1. Design and build simple prototype circuits containing basic electronic components, including voltage and current sources, resistors, capacitors, inductors, and operational amplifiers.
2. Analyse and compute the time and frequency response of simple circuits through application of fundamental network theorems.
3. Analyse and characterise signals and linear systems using various transform methods.
4. Break down a complicated engineering design, such as an electric circuit, data acquisition system, or DC actuator, into a system of interconnected subsystems.
5. Demonstrate an understanding of the fundamentals of data acquisition systems and sensors and their application to sampling and acquisition of real-world physical signals.
6. Specify, implement and evaluate basic data acquisition and control systems.
7. Analyse simple DC actuators and motors and associated controllers.
Module syllabus
•Electrical Circuits: Voltage and current sources, resistors, capacitors, inductors and potential dividers. Kirchhoff's laws. Series and parallel laws. Principle of superposition.
•Circuit Analysis: Thevenin and Norton equivalence theorems. Resistance matching. Nodal circuit analysis.
•Amplifier Circuits: Ideal operational amplifiers (op-amps), inverting and non-inverting op-amp circuits, summing amplifier, unity gain buffer, integrator circuit.
•Frequency Response: Frequency response diagrams (Bode plots).
•Response of Electrical Circuits.
•Transfer functions and their use in characterising LTI systems. Initial- and Final-Value theorems. Pole-zero diagrams and their relation to Fourier transforms.
•Filters. Filter design. Real vs ideal filters, application to discrete data, windowing, moving average, other common filter windows.
•Data Acquisition: Fundamentals of a DAQ system, sampling, Nyquist limit, Anti-aliasing, Analog to Digital Conversion, Digital to Analog Conversion, Introduction to Labview
•Sensors: Potentiometers, optical encoders, strain measurement, pressure transducers, temperature sensors.
•Actuators: Solenoids, DC motors, DC motor control.
Teaching methods
Assessments
This module presents opportunities for both formative and summative assessment.
You will be formatively assessed through progress tests and tutorial sessions.
You will have additional opportunities to self-assess your learning via tutorial problem sheets.
You will be summatively assessed by a written closed-book examination at the end of the module as well as through practical laboratory assessments and online assignments.
Assessment type | Assessment description | Weighting | Pass mark |
Examination | Written examination | 65% | 40% |
Practical | Labs | 30% | 40% |
Coursework | Peer Assessed Poster | 5% | 40% |
Reading list
Compulsory Reading
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Electric Circuits, Systems, and Motors
1st ed. 2020., Cham : Springer International Publishing : Imprint: Springer
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The Mechatronics Handbook
2nd, CRC Press
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Circuits, signals, and systems
MIT Press ; McGraw-Hill
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Electric Circuits, Systems, and Motors
1st ed. 2020., Springer International Publishing
Supplementary Reading
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Electric circuits
Seventh edition., McGraw-Hill Education
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Introductory circuits
John Wiley
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Electric Circuits A Concise, Conceptual Tutorial
1st ed. 2021., Springer International Publishing
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Fundamentals of Modern Electric Circuit Analysis and Filter Synthesis: A Transfer Function Approach
Springer International Publishing AG
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Signals & systems
Second edition., Prentice Hall