Oakland Community College's Department of Engineering, Manufacturing, and Industrial Technology (OCC-EMIT), in partnership with Wayne State University, developed industry driven, hands-on learning programs for collaborative robots in manufacturing applications. United States manufacturing relies on workers trained in advanced manufacturing technologies such as collaborative robots, which transform how workers interact with manufacturing automation. Collaborative robots (cobots) are safe and flexible enough to operate in the vicinity of and harmoniously with human operators. Due to the predicted benefits of cobots in factories, cobots have required manufacturers to re-evaluate traditional barriers between human, semi-automated, and automated tasks, and recruit workers with cobot expertise or train existing workers. In response to this need for cobot trained workers, OCC-EMIT and Wayne State: (1) established a cobot community college course and created an industry-based, cobot laboratory at OCC-EMIT to train community college students in cobot skills and competencies, (2) created cobot learning content for university level students at Wayne State University, (3) offered a two-day cobot short course to educate community college instructors on advanced cobot topics and how to develop cobot learning programs, and (4) engaged with K-12 educators through one-day seminars to broaden their awareness of cobots and next generation manufacturing technologies. 

The centerpieces of OCC-EMIT's cobot laboratory are two FANUC CR-7iA/L collaborative robots. These cobots and supporting equipment were critical to the creation of a new two credit hour course in Oakland Community College's Robotics/Automated Systems Technology program, ROB 1650 Collaborative Robots. Three application labs in ROB 1650 incorporated the collaborative robotic functions into practical usage in pick and place operations, common in manufacturing and assembly factories. Two application labs utilized the automation simulation software, enabling students to practice and train in cobot virtual simulations prior to executing on the physical cobot. In addition to ROB 1650, cobot laboratory capabilities were leveraged in ROB 2400, OCC-EMIT's Robotic Automated Systems Applications to satisfy community college student capstone project requirements. Students apply the cobots in a laboratory application to demonstrate their knowledge of collaborative functions, error checking, notification, and recovery. Wayne State designed cobot learning modules based on OCC-EMIT cobot learning content so that community college students could more easily transition to Wayne State, if interested in a four-year degree. Wayne State Department of Engineering Technology courses MIT 5700 Industrial Robot Modeling and Simulation and ET 5800 Industrial Robot Programming were revised to incorporate cobot modules. A new course, Industrial Cobotics and Safety, was developed to focus solely on cobot training and education.

In addition to cobot learning and laboratory advancements, it was imperative that the project educate and disseminate cobot information to K-12 educators and community college instructors so that high school and community college students become aware of career opportunities in collaborative robotics. OCC-EMIT and Wayne State achieved this dissemination by hosting three seminars for K-12 educators and one workshop for community college instructors. The K-12 educator seminars focused on awareness of cobot technologies and career pathways in collaborative robotics. The workshop for community college instructors guided participatnts through the steps instructors need to take to create collaborative robotic learning programs at their home institutions. Overall, this NSF project delivered new, critical cobot educational content at the community college and university level capable of training future cobot technicians and engineers, which can be replicated at other institutions that aim to develop cobot learning programs.

Last Modified: 12/23/2021
Modified by: Jeremy Rickli