Design and development of a flexible manufacturing cell in the concept of learning factory paradigm for the education of generation 4.0 engineers

Abstract

The main characteristic of the Industry 4.0 era is the increased digitalization and complexity of manufacturing systems. However, for the successful shift to digitalization, the need for a new generation of engineers, the Generation 4.0 Engineers, emerges. Hence, academia must provide the Generation 4.0 engineers with enhanced skills, competencies and hands-on experience as well. A promising solution is the adoption of the Learning Factory paradigm. Therefore, in this paper, the design and development of a highly automated, and flexible manufacturing cell is proposed under the Learning Factory framework. Participating students are divided into groups, responsible for designing and developing one of the system components and thereupon combined so as to form the final solution. The practical implementation of the proposed concept is realized through the case of a manufacturing cell, comprising a 3D-printer, a robotic arm and a CNC milling machine. Consequently, the students are divided into three groups, responsible for the cell layout, the background algorithm, and the multi-purpose gripper. The proposed cell has been tested in vitro, in order to assess the skills, the competencies as well as the hands-on experience each of the students has acquired from the completion of the above-mentioned project.