An example of project-based learning using a laboratory gantry-crane

This paper discusses project-based learning as a method in which the learning process is focused on accomplishing specific engineering objectives. Through completing projects, students must seek out and master the course material that would otherwise be mastered by homework problems and study prior to an exam. In this paper, a gantry-crane laboratory rig is provided as an example system that can be used as the centerpiece for project-based learning in courses covering topics such as systems and control, instrumentation and measurements, computer programming, dynamics, vibrations, and even graduate-level control courses. Details are given of how this rig has been used in an elective automatic control course at the University of Pittsburgh. In addition, specific characteristics of the rig are described which make it useful for other courses, with an example of its use in a freshman-level computer-programming course