The University of Western Ontario

Faculty of Engineering
Mechatronic Systems Engineering Program

MSE 2202 — Introduction to Mechatronic Design

FINAL EXAMINATION—April 13, 2020

Time for Exam (including Download, Create Responses, Scan Responses, and Upload):
4 hours

IMPORTANT NOTES
1. You are to complete this exam independently and alone. Collaborating, discussing, or sharing of informa-
tion during the exam is not permitted. The mark given on this exam applies to you alone and the material
you supply in this exam must be uniquely produced by you.
2. University policy states that cheating and plagiarism are both scholastic offences. Plagiarism is the act or
an instance of copying, using, borrowing, sharing, or stealing another’s words or ideas and attributing them
as one’s own. It does not matter if permission by the other party has been given or not or if that party is a
member of the university or not.
3. The commission of a scholastic offence on an exam is attended by academic penalties that might include
failure on the exam (at minimum), failure of the course and expulsion from the program (at maximum). If
you are caught cheating or plagiarizing, there will be no second warning.
4. Some fraction of students may be selected for a follow-up face-to-face discussion about their exam answers
with the instructor. The students chosen for this may be assigned randomly. The students chosen may
also be those whose answers raise any suspicion that they are not the authentic and unique responses of
that individual. All such decisions and follow-up discussions will be at the sole discretion of the instructor.
Should an instructor decide to initiate follow-up discussion, all selected students will be informed within
one week after the exam. If a student is selected for a follow-up discussion, that discussion will constitute a
mandatory component of the final exam and the instructor may change the final exam mark based on the
outcome of the discussion.

BEFORE THE EXAM

1. Question 3 requires you to have a GitHub account. If you have not created an account, you must create one
prior to the exam. Accounts are free of charge. Visit https://github.com/join. With an account, the exam
classroom can be accessed at the following link: https://classroom.github.com/a/394rcLYM
2. While not required, you may choose to use TinkerCAD for part of your answer to Question 3. Two classrooms
have been created for this purpose. Use the links below to access, depending on your last name. Your
nickname is your Western ID (same as OWL login). Do not use your existing TinkerCAD account, if you have
one.
For students with last names A–L: https://www.tinkercad.com/joinclass/93NACN6NTAXL
For students with last names M–Z: https://www.tinkercad.com/joinclass/JJHBJ6DF7KT2

AT THE END OF THE EXAM

1. A snapshot of your GitHub repository will be captured automatically at 10 pm EDT. Please ensure that it
reflects the most up-to-date version of your code prior to this time.
2. Suspend any work on TinkerCAD.
3. Scan all pages written pages of your exam. Combine into a single Adobe PDF document and verify that
everything is legible. Name your file using the format MSE 2202 Final-Last name-Student no.pdf e.g., MSE
2202 Final-Naish-123456789.pdf. Upload your file to OWL. Your complete exam must be uploaded by the
deadline.
MSE 2202b—Final Exam 2020 Page 2 of 16

SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS
1. It is recommended that you start the examination by first reviewing ALL questions and then scheduling your
time appropriately.
2. Attempt all 5 questions. The marks assigned for each part of each question are shown. Ensure that your
answers are an appropriate length for the marks assigned in each question.
3. There are 16 pages in this examination, including the cover pages. You should print all answer pages and,
except where indicated, put your answers directly on these pages. If you do not have access to a printer, you
may answer the exam questions on other paper; however, each answer must be clearly numbered. It is your
responsibility to ensure that all parts of the exam are answered.
4. Clear presentation is essential to achieve full marks. The proper use of English is required. Write carefully
and neatly. Neatly label all figures. Marks will not be assigned where the information that you are commu-
nicating is not clear and easily read. This applies to scanned pages—if the content of a page is not legible
due to poor lighting or inadequate resolution, the corresponding question(s) will be assigned a grade of 0.
It is your responsibility to ensure that all scanned pages are legible.
5. Clearly identify and justify any assumptions that you make. If you consider that information is not given that
you need to solve a problem, make a reasonable engineering assumption and explain why you are making
that assumption.

QUESTIONS DURING THE EXAM

1. Questions may be asked through Zoom. The chat window is preferred as it is less disruptive and answers
are accessible to everyone at any time during the exam.
2. Zoom may also be used to disseminate clarifications to the exam, if necessary.

3. The Zoom meeting will be active for the duration of the exam. The link is:
https://westernuniversity.zoom.us/j/95943894951

GRADING

Question Earned Mark Total Marks

1 /12

2 /28

3 /32

4 /18

5 /10

Total /100
MSE 2202b—Final Exam 2020 Page 3 of 16

1. Compare and Constrast (12 marks)

In less than 50 words per item, compare and contrast four (out of five) of the following:
(a) Polling and interrupts

(b) Product design specifications and customer requirements

(c) Machine code and assembly code

(d) Quantization error and precision error

(e) PCB trace and via

 MSE 2202b—Final Exam 2020 Page 4 of 16

2. Short Answer Questions (28 marks)

(4) (a) Consider the IR beacons used to help localize the circuit breakers for the course project. They transmit a
continuous stream of ASCII characters at 2400 baud over a 38 kHz carrier signal.
(i) How many characters per second does a beacon transmit? Explain how you arrived at this number.

(ii) If the same information was being transmitted using an NEC encoding, how many characters per second
could the beacon transmit?

(6) (b) Describe the least sustainable aspect of your final project design. What change(s) could be made to improve
the sustainability of the design? Does the change impact other aspects of the design in a positive or negative
manner? Explain.
 MSE 2202b—Final Exam 2020 Page 5 of 16

(4) (c) A 16-bit microcontroller has 128 kB of RAM. What is the word size? How does this relate to the data bus and
address bus of the controller?

(6) (d) Consider the impact of the lab closure due to COVID-19 on the design validation of your robot. Apart from the
obvious disadvantages of not being able to build and/or test a physical prototype of your mechatronic design,
what are at least 2 advantages of being forced to work using alternative approaches (be specific about the
approach and its advantages)? With access to the right tools, is it possible to fully validate the design without
building it?
 MSE 2202b—Final Exam 2020 Page 6 of 16

(4) (e) A standard quadrature encoder with 200 ticks per revolution is used in combination with the drive system of
a mobile robot.
(i) Assuming straight-line motion, explain how this can be used to determine how far the robot has trav-
elled, along with its speed.

(ii) What is the smallest detectable distance that the robot can travel?
 MSE 2202b—Final Exam 2020 Page 7 of 16

(4) (f ) Consider the jar lid design depicted below. From a human factors perspective, discuss the strengths and
weaknesses of the design.
 MSE 2202b—Final Exam 2020 Page 8 of 16

3. Microcontroller Design (32 marks)

Consider the development of an Arduino-based project that will implement a squirrel-proof bird feeder. To thwart
the marauding rodents in their attempts to satiate themselves on bird feed, the feeder has a sliding cover that
lowers when a squirrel is on the feeder. Once the frustrated squirrel departs, the cover opens up again. The
sensitivity of the feeder to the presence of a squirrel is set using a potentiometer; a second potentiometer is used
to control the speed at which the cover moves. Two status LEDs indicate when the cover is open (green) and
closed (red) (alternatively, you may choose to use a single tricolour LED that changes state from green to red).
The cover is actuated using a standard RC-servo motor.

(4) (a) An important aspect of the system is the ability to detect that a furry bandit has landed on the feeder. Identify
at least 2 methods that utilize simple sensors for this purpose (e.g., a camera, machine vision system, or
LIDAR do not qualify as simple), along with the required configuration of the sensors for this application.
Considering how each might be integrated into the system and calibrated, which is the best choice?
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(8) (b) Using the schematic layout in the figure below as a basis, draw a complete schematic that shows how the re-
quired components would be connected to the Arduino. Be sure to include any additional components (e.g.,
resistors, capacitors, diodes, switches) that might be necessary for the circuit to operate properly and also in-
clude the components required for your chosen method from Part (a). All components should be represented
by standard symbols.

5V

3V3 5V Vin
D13
Power
RST D12

AREF D11

IO REF Arduino D10

N/C D9

D8

D7

D6

D5

A0 D4

A1 D3
Analog Input

A2 D2
TX
A3 D1
RX
A4 D0

A5 SCL

SDA
GND
 MSE 2202b—Final Exam 2020 Page 10 of 16

(20) (c) Write a complete Arduino sketch that implements the required functionality for this system, assuming that
the components are connected as shown in your schematic. If any timing functions are required, the delay
function (and its variants) must not be used.
Do not write your code here.
Your code development process must be maintained in version control using git. Your repository should not
be single a “copy and paste” commit, but rather contain a number of smaller commits that reflect the code
development process.
Your repository must be made available at https://classroom.github.com/a/394rcLYM by the end of the
exam.

Please indicate your GitHub username here:

You may also choose to include a TinkerCAD implementation of your code, demonstrating its proper opera-
tion. The code in your repository must match the code on TinkerCAD. If you choose to use TinkerCAD, the
following links (depending on last name) must be used, rather than your personal TinkerCAD account:
For students with last names A–L: https://www.tinkercad.com/joinclass/93NACN6NTAXL
For students with last names M–Z: https://www.tinkercad.com/joinclass/JJHBJ6DF7KT2
Note that the uniqueness of your code will be tested using Moss:
https://theory.stanford.edu/∼aiken/moss/
 MSE 2202b—Final Exam 2020 Page 11 of 16

4. Part Design (18 marks)

Consider the bracket shown below. The base is 40 × 30 × 5 mm. The notch in the base is 5 mm wide and 5 mm
deep. The upright is 40 mm high, 30 mm wide, and 10 mm thick. The hole in the upright is 15 mm in diameter. An
M2 threaded hole is centred on the top of the upright, allowing for a set screw to secure a shaft in the hole. There
are three holes in the base that can accommodate M3 flathead screws. The centres of the holes by the notch are
4 mm from the nearby edges. The centre of the hole by the upright is centred across the width of the base and is
3.36 mm from the upright. In all parts of this question, be sure to clearly state any assumptions.

SOLIDWORKS Educational Product. For Instructional Use Only. SOLIDWORKS Educational Product. For Instructional Use Only.

(12) (a) Using the drawing template provided on the following page, generate a properly laid out and labelled drawing
of the part. Use third-angle projection and include all relevant dimensions and tolerances.
 MSE 2202b—Final Exam 2020

UNLESS OTHERWISE SPECIFIED: FINISH: DEBUR AND

DIMENSIONS ARE IN MM BREAK SHARP DO NOT SCALE DRAWING REVISION
SURFACE FINISH: EDGES
TOLERANCES:
LINEAR: MECHATRONIC SYSTEMS ENGINEERING
ANGULAR:

NAME SIGNATURE DATE TITLE:

DRAWN
CHK'D
APPV'D
MFG
Q.A MATERIAL: DWG NO.
A
WEIGHT: SCALE: SHEET 1 OF 1
Page 12 of 16
 MSE 2202b—Final Exam 2020 Page 13 of 16

(6) (b) Using the design guidelines for manufacturing and assembly, what modifications could be made to improve
the part design? You may use annotated sketches or text in your answer.
MSE 2202b—Final Exam 2020 Page 14 of 16

5. Reflection (10 marks)

Consider the task of making an autonomous robot localize a beacon, as you were required to do for the project.
Discuss the challenges of implementing a system that could perform this task in a robust and repeatable manner.
How did you identify the factors that were affecting proper performance? If you managed to get your robot to
perform the task well, highlight the elements that you implemented to ensure its repeated success. If your robot
performance did not meet your expectations, what changes would you make to your design (hardware and/or
software) improve it?
MSE 2202b—Final Exam 2020 Page 15 of 16

Additional Work
MSE 2202b—Final Exam 2020 Page 16 of 16

S TANDARD A RDUINO F UNCTIONS

abs() char() loop() setup()

analogReference() constrain() lowByte() shiftIn()
analogRead() cos() map() shiftOut()
analogWrite() delay() max() sin()
byte() delayMicroseconds() micros() sizeof()
bit() digitalRead() millis() sqrt()
bitClear() digitalWrite() min() tan()
bitRead() float() noTone() tone()
bitSet() highByte() pinMode() word()
bitWrite() int() pow()
byte() long() pulseIn()