Schooling the young: robots on the curriculum

Technical College of Jutland wished to put robotics and automation on the curriculum and make it possible for students to work with this subject on their apprenticeship test projects.

To come up with a solution that would work in wide range of different projects, the school had to find a user-friendly, intuitive, and mobile industrial robot.

The school acquired a robot arm from Universal Robots at one third of the cost of similar solutions on the market. Quickly, three students took on the challenge of designing an automatic stock management system.

Using only their wits and the graphical interface of the robot, the students programmed the robot to collect items from the stock and place them in three different piles - with great precision. They students received top marks. 

“For an educational institution, the robot is unique. It does not have to be caged in, and it can work right next to the students. It’s very easy to move around and integrate in systems with other types of equipment, which allows the students to choose exactly the project they want,” explained Anton Lejsgaard, Teacher at Technical College of Jutland.

The success of the project means that the school is looking to acquire to additional robots for their new Automation Technologist education.

“The financial crisis was hard on a lot of small businesses. As an educational institution, we have to be on the cutting edge of innovation to prepare our students for the new industrial reality - and with these robots we are,” Anton Lejsgaard concluded.