Flying Robot Production Program for Comprehensive Understanding of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Experience-based learning programs are very important in universities' mechanical and aerospace engineering departments to understand the relationship between classroom lectures on traditional theories, such as material mechanics, fluid dynamics, dynamics of machinery, and control engineering, and real mechanical systems phenomena. Generally, the real phenomena are defined by interactions of multiple theories. Meanwhile, the use of recent digital manufacturing technologies, such as 3D printers, CAD/CAM, and CAE should be leveraged for more recent educational content and methods. In these circumstances, the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Nagoya University introduced a flying robot production program to help provide a comprehensive understanding of mechanical and aerospace engineering. This paper reports the first year results of the novel program and shares the questionnaire survey that was used to assess the results.