Content and Realization of Education in Mechanism Theory at RWTH Aachen University

Abstract

Within the last years new trends in education in mechanism theory have been established. For improving the sustainability of learning the conventional separation into lectures and exercises is extended by a laboratory which is held for a small audience. Because of this it is possible to enhance the education in mechanism theory by using the computational methods within the process of understanding. The students are familiarized with those methods, e.g. the geometry software Cinderella, in a very early stage of mechanism development. Especially different synthesis and analysis procedures are applied in this stage. At RWTH Aachen the courses “Electromechanical Motion Technology”, “Motion technology” and “Kinematic, dynamic and applications in robotics” are taught in Bachelor and Master studies. In this chapter we will present the implementation of the innovative educational concepts basing on the above mentioned trends. Firstly, we will introduce the content of these courses. Therefore, the reason for segmenting the content into the different classes will be explained. Subsequently, additional background information (group size, lecturers, coordination between lecture, exercise and laboratory) are given and the complete organization of the courses is explained as well. The concept is demonstrated applying a vivid and descriptive example.