Since the 2018 winter semester, students at the university have had the opportunity to come into contact with state-of-the-art industrial robots in a cross-faculty robotics laboratory. In the newly created subject "Industrial Robot Lab", participants learn how to independently control and program Kuka robots. "The theory can be tested directly in practice and sound knowledge can be acquired, which is in great demand on the job market," says Prof. Dr. Christian Wurll from the Faculty of Economics at the Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences - Technology and Economics.

At the same time, the newly opened robotics laboratory will also maintain the attractiveness of the university. Training takes place on four ready2_educate training cells from Kuka. The mobile training cell is a complete package for teaching the basics of robotics and is aimed specifically at schools, universities and company training facilities. Each cell is equipped with the Kuka KR 3 Agilus small robot and the KR C4 compact controller. Thanks to its high flexibility and precision, the versatile robot is suitable for a wide range of tasks.

The robot is supplied directly with an integrated gripper and a range of workpieces such as cubes and pens. A selection of didactic training applications is also pre-programmed. The tasks in the available learning material are divided into three successive levels of difficulty.

Training cells promote collaboration
"Kuka's training cells make the complex technologies and processes of Industry 4.0 tangible," says Prof. Wurll. In a varied program of theoretical and practical units, students learn the basics of robot programming in small groups. In the last third of the semester, each group has to put what they have learned to the test in a project. Here, the students also have to contribute their specialist knowledge from other lectures, such as computer science or technical mechanics.

Every year, around 200 students from all faculties are given the opportunity to work on the training cells in robotics. The courses developed by Kuka to teach the basics of robot operation and programming enable students to carry out tasks such as palletizing and depalletizing cubes and tracing complex surfaces and contours. The control of external peripherals or the handling of events can also be implemented.

Based on these tasks, the students programmed the game "Four Wins" in the 2018/2019 winter semester, for example. In the game mode "Human vs. Robot", the robot moves all the game pieces according to the human's user input and the robot's game strategy implemented in Robot Language.