An Educational Model of Graduation Project for Students at Automation and Computer Engineering

Abstract

The upcoming engineers, students at Automation and Computer Engineering, acquire, during four years of education, a tremendous theoretical information in different areas connected with their educational field of study. From solid mathematical backgrounds to electronics and automation and many other subjects become a stock of incredible useful database for future engineers. The lack of adequate practical work that allow them to connect and get aware on how to use information acquired, lead, in most of the situation, to a useless database of information. This paper presents a model of a good practice work and aims to be a useful example for students in the last year of study on how to handle and realize, starting from one idea and finishing with a working prototype, their graduation project. The example here is a low cost, handy, a real time data acquisition and duplex wireless data communication system. It consists of two modules. The first one is a glove used by an operator, equipped with an Arduino board with a gyroscope, accelerometer and full duplex communication parts that sends movements commands to a mobile robot. The mobile robot is equipped with a camera sending video streaming related to the immediate space and a network of sensors with the aim to acquire environmental data and sent them remotely to the first module.