Lawrence Technological University

What engineering course for making robots?

I'm in the UK and I really wanted to do mechatronics at kings, but all their engineering courses are being dropped next year! The options i have left are either mechanical engineering or electronic engineering. Could someone advise me which course would be more suitable for making robots as a career. I've asked the unis and they suggest mechanical, but i heard it is more focused on making engines rather than control systems and all the other stuff you need to know to be able to build high tech, electro-mechanical devices. Any help would be greeeaaatly appreciated! Thanks!

Public Comments

1. Its Robotics. Robotics Another area of computer science that has found wide practical use is robotics—the design and development of computer controlled mechanical devices. Robots range in complexity from toys to automated factory assembly lines, and relieve humans from tedious, repetitive, or dangerous tasks. Robots are also employed where requirements of speed, precision, consistency, or cleanliness exceed what humans can accomplish. Roboticists—scientists involved in the field of robotics—study the many aspects of controlling robots. These aspects include modeling the robot’s physical properties, modeling its environment, planning its actions, directing its mechanisms efficiently, using sensors to provide feedback to the controlling program, and ensuring the safety of its behavior. They also study ways of simplifying the creation of control programs. One area of research seeks to provide robots with more of the dexterity and adaptability of humans, and is closely associated with AI.
2. MIT Mechanical-Engineering http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Mechanical-Engineering/index.htm MIT /research/controls/ http://meche.mit.edu/research/controls/ online classes links free http://www.infocobuild.com/education/audio-video-courses/computer-science/computer-science.html Andrew Ng @ Stanford leading of art at 2007 Video CS229 - Machine Learning http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=A89DCFA6ADACE599 Unmanned Systems North America http://www.auvsi.org/index.cfm some links to the "art" today http://www.patents.com/Unmanned-vehicle/US7299130/en-US/ This is hardly complete,hope it gets you started in a exciting field , that well be much needed in our lives ahead. life is a learning experience,enjoy.
3. In mechanical engineering itself, you can take "automatic control" as an optional subject. I took this subject almost 40 years ago. There are control systems without the need for any electronic or electrical systems. But mechanical engineering course normally should include some electrical subjects also. If you combine both, you can tackle robotics. But best would have been mechjatronics.