Mechatronics Module Plan

1. semester

The Mathematics Core Module teaches you the mathematical fundamentals that you absolutely must master for engineering applications.

 

What to Expect

You’ll learn how to work with vectors, matrices, and systems of linear equations; explore functions, limits, continuity, and differential calculus; and practice mathematical modeling for engineering applications.

 

Your Skills After Completing the Module

  • Confident use of vectors, matrices, and systems of linear equations
  • Analyzing and describing mathematical relationships using functions
  • Solve applied problems using differential calculus
  • Developing mathematical models for engineering problems
  • Logical reasoning and independent problem-solving

 

Why is this important?

Mathematical proficiency is the foundation for all other engineering disciplines and is essential for precisely analyzing technical problems, creating models, and developing solutions.

The “The Fascination of Mechatronics” seminar provides you with an inspiring overview of the diversity of technical systems, career fields, and engineering methods in the field of mechatronics.

What to Expect

You’ll explore key topics such as robotics, automation, embedded systems, sensor technology, control engineering, and sustainable production. You’ll gain insight into typical career paths for mechatronics engineers, learn the basics of legal and ethical frameworks, and practice engineering methods through small group projects. Guest lectures and discussions with industry experts will give you a better understanding of real-world applications.

 

Your Skills After the Module

  • Understanding of key technologies, applications, and trends in mechatronics
  • An overview of career prospects in industry, development, and research
  • Fundamentals of engineering work methods and project structuring
  • Confidence in teamwork, presentations, and professional reflection
  • Awareness of ethical, sustainability, and regulatory issues

Why is this important?

This seminar will help you get started in your degree program, provide guidance on possible specializations, and show you how you can apply your technical interests to responsible and exciting roles in modern industry or research.

This module introduces you to modern manufacturing processes—from metalworking to 3D printing to plastics processing.

 

What to Expect

You’ll gain an overview of shaping, forming, cutting, joining, coating, and modern generative processes. Material properties, economic considerations, and the fundamentals of manufacturing planning are also covered—supplemented by hands-on lab exercises.

 

Your Skills After Completing the Module

  • Classify and apply manufacturing processes according to DIN 8580
  • Evaluate and compare technological alternatives
  • Plan and economically analyze manufacturing processes
  • Discuss and present manufacturing processes as part of a team

Why is this important?

Manufacturing is central to every technical product—without knowledge of manufacturing, materials, and cost-effectiveness, you cannot develop practical designs.

You'll learn how forces act in technical systems—from simple reactions to complex static equilibrium.

 

What to Expect

You’ll analyze forces, moments, and equilibrium conditions. You’ll work with internal forces, support reactions, friction, center-of-gravity calculations, and trusses. Numerous exercises will help you understand the material and demonstrate practical applications—for example, in medical devices.

 

Your Skills After Completing the Module

  • Calculate forces and moments in 2D and 3D systems
  • Analyze truss structures and determine reactions
  • Confidently apply static equilibrium conditions
  • Determine friction, center of gravity, and internal forces

Why is this important?

Statics is a fundamental discipline of mechanics—without it, you cannot design reliable structures that can withstand mechanical loads.

This module will give you a basic understanding of electrical engineering as it applies to direct current circuits—from Ohm’s law to practical measurements in the lab.

 

What to Expect

You’ll learn basic concepts such as voltage, current, resistance, energy, and power. You’ll analyze simple electrical networks, apply Ohm’s Law, perform node and loop analyses, and work with components such as capacitors, LEDs, and operational amplifiers. Lab exercises will deepen your understanding through hands-on practice.

 

Your Skills After Completing the Module

  • Analyze and calculate basic circuits
  • Use lab equipment such as multimeters and power supplies safely
  • Calculate resistances, voltages, and currents in DC circuits
  • Integrate components such as LEDs and operational amplifiers into simple circuits

Why is this important?

This knowledge is essential for any future work in electronics and medical technology—you’ll understand how devices function electrically and can actively contribute to their development.

You'll learn how computer programs work—from algorithms to practical implementation in a programming language.

 

What to Expect

You’ll work with variables, loops, conditionals, functions, and algorithms in a language like Python or C. You’ll develop simple console applications and learn how to use development environments and version control.

 

Your Skills After the Module

  • Apply basic programming structures
  • Formulate and implement algorithms
  • Write and test simple programs
  • Systematically structure and document code

Why is this important?

Understanding software is essential today, even for non-computer scientists—this module lays the foundation for everything else in development and automation.

2. semester

Analysis provides you with key tools for describing continuous processes in engineering and nature.

 

What to Expect

You’ll work with complex numbers, series, Taylor expansions, multidimensional functions, and integrals—including applications in physics, engineering, and numerical methods.

 

Your Skills After Completing the Module

  • Approximate functions using Taylor series
  • Analyze multidimensional functions
  • Calculating extrema—including those with constraints
  • Interpreting curves in various representations
  • Structuring and solving complex problems

This module teaches you the physical fundamentals of mechanics, thermodynamics, and vibrations—in a practical and application-oriented way.

 

What to Expect

You’ll work with quantities such as momentum, energy, and force, and learn fundamental principles such as Newton’s second law, conservation of momentum, work, temperature, and heat transfer. This is supplemented by hands-on experiments and sample calculations from the field of engineering.

 

Your Skills After Completing the Module

  • Explain physical concepts in mechanics and thermodynamics
  • Apply and interpret formulas correctly
  • Evaluate real-world engineering processes using your knowledge of physics
  • Plan, conduct, and evaluate simple experiments

In the “Robotics” module, you’ll learn how mechanics, electronics, and IT work together in modern robotic systems—from grasping motions to the simulation of complex processes.

 

What to Expect

You’ll explore the mechanical fundamentals of robotic arms and mobile robots, such as various gripping techniques and locomotion concepts. In the IT section, you’ll learn to simulate motion sequences and test program modules—without using actual hardware just yet. In the electronics section, you’ll discover how motors, sensors, power supplies, and their interfaces work together in real robot systems. Theory and practice are directly linked through lab exercises.

 

Your Skills After Completing the Module

  • Understand and apply the basic principles of robot mechanics and locomotion
  • Simulate motion sequences and test software modules
  • Classify electronic components in robotic systems and understand their interfaces
  • Analyze the interaction of mechanics, electronics, and software in robotics
  • Gain hands-on experience in the lab and further develop systems in a targeted manner

Why is this important?

Robotics is a central field of mechatronics and automation. This module provides you with hands-on insight into how modern robotic systems are structured and function—a key competency for the future of industry.

This module will enable you to design technical components professionally and create them using modern CAD tools.

 

What to Expect

You’ll learn the basics of technical drawing, dimensioning, tolerances, fits, and design principles. You’ll model components using CAD software, perform motion analyses, and create production-ready drawings, including 3D visualization and collision checks.

 

Your Skills After Completing the Module

  • Read, create, and interpret technical drawings in accordance with standards
  • Design CAD models and assemblies
  • Perform motion analyses and collision checks
  • Selecting and applying design elements

Why is this important?

Technical product development is based on precise drawings and digital design—with this knowledge, you can develop components in a constructive and practical manner.

This module introduces you to the world of alternating current technology, complex impedances, and electrical power transmission.

 

What to Expect

You’ll analyze AC circuits, calculate reactive power, and learn about transformers, complex numbers in power grids, equivalent circuit diagrams, and the frequency-dependent behavior of components—all supplemented by hands-on exercises.

 

Your skills after completing the module

  • Analyze AC networks with complex quantities
  • Calculate phase shifts and types of power
  • Understand and design transformers and resonant circuits
  • Evaluate the frequency response of technical systems

Why is this important?

AC technology is the foundation for power supplies, motors, and medical devices—with this knowledge, you’ll gain a comprehensive understanding of electrical systems.

In this module, you will develop software for real-world technical applications—in a structured, object-oriented, and goal-oriented manner.

 

What to Expect

You’ll deepen your programming skills in a language such as Java or C#, develop GUI applications, work with classes, objects, events, and libraries, and create your own small tools or prototypes for technical tasks.

 

Your Skills After the Module

  • Object-oriented programming and structuring
  • Designing user interfaces and handling events
  • Using libraries and developing your own modules
  • Documenting, testing, and further developing software

Why is this important?

In today’s world of technology and development, almost nothing works without software—with this module, you can turn your ideas into functional, user-friendly programs.

3. semester

This module provides you with the mathematical tools needed to describe, analyze, and solve dynamic systems—essential for many engineering applications.

 

What to Expect

You will learn how to model continuous and discrete processes using differential and difference equations. To do this, you will use, among other things, eigenvalue analysis, integral transforms such as the Laplace and Z-transforms, and methods for frequency analysis. In practical applications, you’ll use numerical methods such as the Euler or Runge-Kutta methods to analyze complex systems with the aid of computers.

 

Your Skills After Completing the Module

  • Mathematically modeling and analyzing dynamic systems
  • Solve differential and difference equations in the time and frequency domains
  • Apply numerical methods (e.g., Euler, Runge-Kutta)
  • Working with integral transforms (Laplace, Z)
  • Analyze periodic signals using Fourier methods

Why is this important?

Whether in control engineering, signal processing, or image analysis—the ability to mathematically model technical systems and predict their behavior is one of the core competencies of modern engineers. This module provides the theoretical and practical foundation for this while simultaneously strengthening your analytical thinking skills.

Physics 2 expands your knowledge of electrical, magnetic, and optical phenomena that play a role in many technical applications.

 

What to Expect

You’ll explore electric fields, electric currents, magnetism, electromagnetic induction, and optical systems. The course content is tailored to technical applications, such as sensor technology, energy engineering, and imaging.

 

Your Skills After Completing the Module

  • Explain the fundamentals of electricity and magnetism
  • Apply optical phenomena in technical contexts (e.g., lenses, interference)
  • Calculate fields and currents in technical contexts
  • Confidently apply physical models

Why is this important?

Many technical systems—from MRI machines to solar panels—are based on electromagnetic principles, which you will be able to understand and apply effectively with this module.

This module will teach you about the different types of materials, their structure, and their capabilities in technical applications.

 

What to Expect

You’ll examine metals, ceramics, plastics, and composites in terms of their microstructure, properties, heat treatment, corrosion, and processing. Material selection, sustainability, and testing methods play an important role in this process.

 

Your Skills After Completing the Module

  • Evaluate material groups and their properties
  • Understand and apply mechanical and physical properties
  • Selecting materials based on their intended use and service life
  • Explain material behavior under stress or environmental influences

Why is this important?

Choosing the right material determines a product’s function, safety, and service life—with this knowledge, you can develop well-thought-out technical solutions.

Strength of Materials shows you how components react under loads—whether they hold up, deform, or fail.

 

What to Expect

You’ll analyze stress and strain, examine bending, torsion, buckling, and shear, and learn how to calculate and evaluate stress states. Real-world material properties and safety analyses are taken into account.

 

Your Skills After Completing the Module

  • Calculate stress and strain distributions
  • Evaluate component stress in real-world application scenarios
  • Perform analyses for bending, torsion, and buckling
  • Calculate the strength and stability of structural elements

Why is this important?

Only by understanding how materials and structures behave under load can one develop safe and functional products.

This module teaches you the theoretical and practical fundamentals of developing analog and digital electronic circuits.

 

What to Expect

You’ll learn about the structure and function of key semiconductor components, analyze amplifier circuits, work with operational amplifiers and power supplies, and implement simple logic and counter circuits. Topics such as thermal management, digital logic, flip-flops, and deterministic automata are covered, as are the simulation, measurement, and sizing of electronic circuits.

 

Your Skills After Completing the Module

  • Calculate, analyze, and simulate basic analog and digital circuits
  • Design and apply operational amplifier circuits
  • Understand and use voltage regulators and amplifiers
  • Construct and simplify digital logic functions (e.g., using Karnaugh maps)
  • Develop and implement switching circuits and automata
  • Use measuring instruments safely and interpret technical data sheets

Why is this important?

Electronic circuits are the backbone of modern technology—from sensor technology to signal processing. This module prepares you to understand, develop, and apply such systems specifically for technical applications.

To help you deepen your knowledge in a specialized field of your choice, we offer the following areas of focus:

  • Mechatronic Systems / Devices

  • Mechatronic Systems in Vehicles

  • Mechatronic Systems in Photonics

  • Automation and Intelligent Systems

4. semester

You'll learn how complex technical systems can be analyzed and simulated using mathematical models.

 

What to Expect

You’ll model dynamic systems in the time and frequency domains, work with state-space representations, analyze frequency responses, and use software such as MATLAB/Simulink for simulations. You’ll learn to apply the Fourier transform, Bode plots, and Nyquist plots in a practical context.

 

Your skills after completing the module

  • Mathematically model and simulate dynamic systems
  • Interpret and linearize state-space representations
  • Evaluate system behavior in the frequency domain
  • Validate and present simulation results

Why is this important?

Simulation saves time, money, and reduces risk—with this knowledge, you can analyze and optimize complex systems in a targeted manner even before they are actually built.

In the development project, you'll work as part of a team on a realistic technical product—from concept to prototype.

 

What to Expect

In small groups, you’ll plan, develop, and document a technical product. You’ll apply project management methods, design circuit boards, program microcontrollers, and use 3D printing or sensor technology—depending on the topic. Workshops on Arduino, FMEA, and presentation techniques will support you.

 

Your Skills After the Module

  • Break a project down into meaningful work packages and coordinate them
  • Build prototypes using microcontrollers and electronics
  • Confidently apply project management tools and documentation
  • Collaborating in a team, presenting, and reflecting

Why is this important?

The project gives you a hands-on look at how technical development works in the industry—you’ll learn to work independently and apply the knowledge you’ve gained so far.

In this module, you'll use a microcontroller system to develop simple embedded applications—from sensor reading to control.

 

What to Expect

You’ll work with microcontroller platforms (e.g., Arduino), write C programs, access digital and analog inputs and outputs, and develop real-time applications. Circuits, protocols, and embedded concepts are taught in a practical, hands-on manner.

 

Your Skills After the Module

  • Program microcontrollers and integrate them into systems
  • Electronically control sensors and actuators
  • Master the fundamentals of Embedded C
  • Implementing simple control systems

Why is this important?

From medical technology to automation—embedded systems are everywhere. This module lays the foundation for your skills in hardware-oriented development.

This module will give you a technical understanding of analog and digital measurement systems—from sensors to digital signal processing.

 

What to Expect

You’ll learn how to measure physical and chemical quantities such as temperature, force, and radiation. You’ll develop your own analog and digital filters, work with AD/DA converters, analyze measurement errors, and use tools like LTSpice or MATLAB for simulation.

 

Your Skills After Completing the Module

  • Understand how sensors work and their applications
  • Filter and evaluate analog and digital signals
  • Perform calibration and error analysis
  • Apply FFT, the sampling theorem, and digital filters in practice

Why is this important?

Precise measurements are essential in mechatronics and medical technology—this module will help you understand how analog signals are converted into reliable digital information.

To help you deepen your knowledge in a specialized field of your choice, we offer the following areas of focus:

  • Mechatronic Systems / Devices

  • Mechatronic Systems in Vehicles

  • Mechatronic Systems in Photonics

  • Automation and Intelligent Systems

5. semester

Please refer to the module handbook and the study and examination regulations for details.

6. semester

Control engineering helps you influence systems so that they automatically adapt to a desired behavior—such as in cruise control systems or ventilators.

 

What to Expect

You’ll learn to analyze and design control loops: simulate and design n-point and PID controllers, analyze them in the state-space domain, and develop state controllers with observers. Theory and lab exercises complement each other closely—including MATLAB/Simulink.

 

Your Skills After the Module

  • Identify and classify control problems
  • Design, test, and optimize classical controllers
  • Develop state-space controllers and observers using modern methods
  • Perform simulations using MATLAB/Simulink
  • Implement controllers and control systems

Why is this important?

Whether it’s ventilators, robotics, or machine control—precise control is essential everywhere. This module provides a key skill for many technical applications.

You can choose from a wide range of interdisciplinary courses in the fields of economics and social sciences.

Please refer to the module handbook and the study and examination regulations for details.

You can choose from a wide range of foreign languages. Please refer to the module handbook and the study and examination regulations for details.

You can choose from a wide range of subject-specific modules. Here are a few popular examples:

  • Algorithms and Data Structures
  • Automotive Engineering
  • Descriptive Statistics
  • Fundamentals of Engineering Education
  • Advanced Mathematics
  • Interdisciplinary Product Development
  • Interface Design and Usability
  • Plastics Engineering
  • Machine Learning
  • Computer Vision
  • Hydraulics
  • Off-Grid Photovoltaic Systems
  • Radiation Measurement Technology
  • Environmental Technology, Law, and Management
  • Environmentally Friendly Products

In addition, you can take all major-specific modules from the other specializations as elective modules.

To help you deepen your knowledge in a specialized field of your choice, we offer the following areas of specialization:

  • Mechatronic Systems / Devices

  • Mechatronic Systems in Vehicles

  • Mechatronic Systems in Photonics

  • Automation and Intelligent Systems

To help you deepen your knowledge in a specialized field of your choice, we offer the following areas of specialization:

  • Mechatronic Systems / Devices

  • Mechatronic Systems in Vehicles

  • Mechatronic Systems in Photonics

  • Automation and Intelligent Systems

7. semester

Your bachelor's thesis marks the completion of your degree program. It can be completed either at a company or at the university; the project duration is four months.

You can choose from a wide range of subject-specific modules. Here are a few popular examples:

  • Algorithms and Data Structures
  • Automotive Engineering
  • Descriptive Statistics
  • Fundamentals of Engineering Education
  • Advanced Mathematics
  • Interdisciplinary Product Development
  • Interface Design and Usability
  • Plastics Engineering
  • Machine Learning
  • Computer Vision
  • Hydraulics
  • Off-Grid Photovoltaic Systems
  • Radiation Measurement Technology
  • Environmental Technology, Law, and Management
  • Environmentally Friendly Products

In addition, you can take all major-specific modules from the other specializations as elective modules.

To help you deepen your knowledge in a specialized field of your choice, we offer the following areas of focus:

  • Mechatronic Systems / Devices

  • Mechatronic Systems in Vehicles

  • Mechatronic Systems in Photonics

  • Automation and Intelligent Systems

To help you deepen your knowledge in a specialized field of your choice, we offer the following areas of specialization:

  • Mechatronic Systems / Devices

  • Mechatronic Systems in Vehicles

  • Mechatronic Systems in Photonics

  • Automation and Intelligent Systems