The best of all worlds – education, industry and robot technology combine to help produce the engineers of tomorrow
In January of this year we blogged about how the Institute of Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering (AME) provides a factory floor setting where manufacturing engineering students can learn how to perform manufacturing tasks using the latest production technologies such as our IRB 120s.
This year the institute, a joint venture between the Unipart Manufacturing Group and Coventry University, took this one step further by investing in our collaborative robot, YuMi®. Students will now spend over three hours training on the dual-armed robot, learning how to utilise its various features, such as flexible hands, camera-based part location and state-of-the-art control for small parts assembly applications.
Students will also participate in real life research and development projects, including teaching the robot to complete lightweight assembly work for electronics and automotive components. This will prepare them for the manufacturing environments of the near future, with robotic automation due to become more commonplace throughout UK industry.
Carl Perrin, Director of AME, explains, “YuMi is a vision of the future and has the potential to change the way we think about assembly automation. It’s fantastic that we are one of the first organisations in the UK to implement it into our course and in the wider Unipart Manufacturing operation.”
In addition, YuMi will be used to provide training opportunities for Unipart Manufacturing Group’s existing engineers. The company intends to integrate the technology into its manufacturing processes, which currently make a range of products for the automotive industry, from exhaust systems through to powertrain components.
Carl Perrin concluded, “There has been a lot of talk about robots taking people’s jobs, but we don’t believe this. They will be an important element of manufacturing going forward, delivering new solutions and improving productivity.
“The UK has to be investing in collaborative robots like YuMi and ensuring the next generation of engineers are being given the chance to learn on them and to apply what they’ve learned to real applications.
“We’re already doing this with a fully-integrated ABB robot cell, but our investment in the collaborative robot marks the next step forward for us.”
The AME is a great example of how the worlds of business and education can combine to equip the next generation with the skills they need to secure themselves a job. In a market where skills such as robot programming are becoming ever more valuable, we believe that more businesses and educational institutes should work together to provide such training. Having also trained our own ex-apprentice Louis Novakovic to program YuMi, we are very excited to see how the robot is used to help students to develop their abilities.
To find out more about how the Institute of Advanced Manufacturing is bridging the gap between the worlds of education and employment, read our post ‘AME-ing high – a great example of how collaboration between education and employment is equipping young people for the manufacturing world of tomorrow'.