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EM 613 - Automation Laboratory (Laboratório de Automação)
Automation Laboratory is a discipline of the 2nd semester of the last year of Mechanical Engineering degree (5-year degree course) where the students are supposed to carry on the design and the real implementation of an automatic system case study. A group of professors prepares, each year, a set of carefully planned case studies, for integrating diversified perspectives and concepts acquired along the course, exercising students capabilities in experimental problem solving strategy and stimulating their creativity. The professor in charge for each case study regularly supervises students, working alone or in a group. Objectives Along the semester the design and the intensive “hands on” laboratory implementation of an automatic system case study, from Industrial Automation field, integrates maters from some areas among the following: electric and electronic instrumentation; measurements; hydraulic, pneumatic and electrical actuators’ systems; control and monitoring systems; robotics; mechanical design; industrial computing and systems integration. A final report and a practical presentation are, also, complementary assessment methodologies. The course stimulates a cooperative learning strategy and promotes student teamwork skills and personal responsibility, self-organization and conflict-solving capabilities, while integrating diverse fundamental concepts in a structured, operational way. |