Autonomous Vehicles and Mechatronics Education

Automotive mechatronics involves the multidisciplinary integration of automotive mechanical and electronic systems. As such, automotive mechatronics education integrates knowledge and competences across automotive-specific mechanics, electronics, communication, advanced control, and modeling. Over the last few years, the subject of autonomous vehicles has been attracting significant attention from researchers, as well as interest from the media and the public at large. It encompasses a myriad of new applications, ranging from driverless cars to airborne surveillance of sensitive areas. Designing solutions for autonomous vehicles requires the integration of hardware and software components, as well as interaction with cloud-based servers. This paper focuses on autonomous/unmanned ground vehicles within the scope of a mechatronics curriculum. It has been proposes an educational model for autonomous vehicles for inclusion in the new mechatronics curriculum of NewMetro, an EU funded project that aims to develop an innovative European framework of competences for mechatronics education.