Design and development of sensor-based mini projects for embedded system laboratory using ARM Cortex-M3(LPC1768)

In majority of Indian Universities, advanced courses on embedded system design and its related laboratory are not available until the post-graduate level. Early exposure to embedded system design with advanced microcontroller is necessary for computer science and engineering students to face the design challenges in the today's world. This paper presents a mini project-based laboratory for learning embedded system design with different sensors. The aim of this laboratory is to motivate the students to learn the building blocks of embedded systems and control algorithm using the basic hardware and software programming skills provided in this paper, making use of ARM Cortex-M3 processor which is widely used in modern microcontroller products, System on Chip (SoC) and Application Specific Standard Products (ASSP). To enhance the learning process, students are allowed to take this laboratory in three sessions and sensor interfacing projects are provided in the third session. The sensor based projects developed with schematic circuits and software algorithm makes the students to perform all the projects easily and individually. The components including programmer/debugger are inexpensive and can be implemented as take-home projects. It also provides an opportunity to make use as hands-on experience which is then integrated by students to complete their mini project. The feedback from the students shows that most of them were motivated to learn actively all the skills included in the laboratory for embedded system design.