Advice for educators? (robotics/mechatronics)

[Captn Blynd]

I am a retired student starting classes at my local community college. They are trying to start up a brand new robotics/mechatronics curriculum. Things are still very fluid and the school is asking for input from the students. I thought it might be best to ask around. 

What programming languages should we concentrate on? ( I use arduino C)

What hardware is becoming current or standard? 

What do you think is the most important thing to learn?

Where would you start and where do you think it should go

What do you use and what would you like to know more about? 

I am a 3D printing hobbyist who uses arduino RAMPS as controllers so I have some familiarity with the subject but my experience is really limited to this environment. I know it is a broad topic but any input would be helpful. 

[Adrian Godwin]

Arduino is very useful but the AVRs are running out of steam and the ARMs are coming up. I wouldn't say the ARM support is that good yet, but it's worth looking at the Due, the new Zero and the non-arduino products like Teensy 3 to ensure you're not starting with the retiring products. I suspect Teensy support is still better than the arduino ARMs.

C is still the best language for embedded  development by a mile. The variant of C++ used in arduino isn't too bad as long as you avoid most of the C++ features (!), most notably memory management. These problems will ease as the larger memory parts are introduced, but the arguments for using them on a real-time system are still poor.

There are other possibilities such as micro-python but I'd regard them as interesting demos rather than production quality. When you have a constrained resource it's best not to hide the underlying restrictions.

If you have a mixed architecture such as a high-level robotic controller (maybe PC, or the intel edison) and a low level machine controller such as an ARM, you have a lot more freedom .. but note that most PC-replacements like the Raspberry Pi have the performance of a 10-year-old PC. Useful, but not really comparable with desktop devices, so don't expect the uninhibited design decisions of fashionable languages to perform well.

 

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