On the 7th December 2021, the students of the 5th semester of the mechatronics undergraduate program at FH Vorarlberg proudly presented their results of the focus project course. This course is based on the first demonstrator implemented in the DigiDemo Erasmus+ Project.
The 5th semester is the exchange semester in which many of the students working in the project are from partner institutions, and 15 students from Austria, Norway, The Netherlands, France, and Spain participated in the course, split into three teams of five people. The teams were mixed in several manners: Both exchange students (from different countries) and local students worked in a team. Students were allowed to choose between two courses “focus mechanical engineering” and “focus electronic engineering”, depending on their interests. And each team had students from both the mechanical and the electronic course.
A given gantry robot with X and Y axes controlled by a PLC had to be augmented. The task of the students was to add a Z axis moved by a stepper motor controlled by an embedded system, build a gripper and a spinning top (to be picked and then placed) and some other parts needed. The students’ task was not only to design, implement and test the missing components, but also to set up a requirements specification document, to put all things together and make the whole mechatronic system running.
