Integrated Laboratory Instruction on CAD/CAM and Robotics at MUSE

Abstract

Abstract -Students achievement in design and hands-on laboratory experience are important part of engineering education. To meet this requirement, the department of mechanical and industrial engineering offers design and manufacturing courses to engineering students at Mercer University School of Engineering (MUSE). In this paper, how the manufacturing laboratory facilities, and design/automation hardware and software available are effectively integrated to teach Computer Aided Design (CAD), Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM), CAD/CAM integration, dimensioning and tolerancing, and measurement and inspection with appropriate hands-on experiences to engineering students are presented and discussed. A Design (CAD), Fabrication (CAM), and Measurement (CMM) module, a Design and Fabrication of Spline (DFS module) using the rotary axis of a CNC machining center, and a laboratory experiment in robotics along with results obtained from student team projects are presented, analyzed, and discussed