Characterization of uses of trigonometric notions in Mechatronics Engineering from Mathematics Education

Abstract

From the Socioepistemological Theory we propose that even with the curricular articulation presented in school programs of Engineering it exists a disarticulation of uses of mathematical knowledge, this is displayed more emphatically when a student takes professionalizing courses. We proposed the research question of: what uses of trigonometric notions are given in Mechatronics Engineering when students solve problems in Robotics? we use the Socioepistemological Theory in tandem with the ethnographic method to identify and characterize them in their cultural framework. By the delimitation of the study to a community of Mechatronics Engineering in a Mexican university and the direct kinematics problem in the subject of Industrial Robotics, we characterize that trigonometric notions are given an arithmetic, metric, quantitative and algebraic usage, and by them, the Trigonometry acquires more significates aided by the construction of visual references that allow the mathematical modelling that was done, and from which we recognize in the pseudo-concrete models (drawing and kinematic schemes) the reason to be for Trigonometry as a tool for Robotics: the determination of the position in a circle or circular sector.