Developing the next generation of manufacturing engineers requires new types of hands-on education. That’s why Purdue Polytechnic’s School of Engineering Technology (SoET) recently built a state-of-the-art facility that features cutting-edge production equipment.

The Smart Factory Lab enables students to “apply innovative, advanced technologies to generate theory-based solutions to real-world manufacturing challenges.” It exposes them to a variety of Industry 4.0 tools, including artificial intelligence, collaborative robots, data analytics, machine learning and mixed reality technology.

It’s all part of Purdue University’s new “Next Giant Leap” initiative, which was inspired by famous alum Neil Armstrong and his first footsteps on the Moon more than 50 years ago.

“This is not how manufacturing has been done for the last 60, 70 years,” says Tim Updike, director of operations for SoET. “Instead, we’re showing our students how their work can connect, in a live factory setting, with new technologies in robotics, 3D print modeling or any kind of innovative practice that will make the manufacturing process more efficient.”

“Part of what the Smart Factory is doing is showing students how the entire set up of industrial manufacturing is going to change as we move into Industry 4.0,” adds Grant Richards, Ph.D., assistant professor of practice in engineering technology at Purdue Polytechnic.

“Facilities are changing over from high-volume, low-customizability products to lower volume but highly customized goods,” explains Richards. “That requires a radically different skill set for the upcoming work force, much less a radically different set of machines and computer brains to do that work.”

New Age Curriculum

Richards defines “smart” manufacturing as data- and tech-powered production, where Industry 4.0 serves as the integration of information technology and operational technology, paired with a human-centric focus on advanced automation such as AI and machine learning.

“[Our new] facility is more than just a learning environment—it’s an ‘incubator for innovation where students can synthesize the full spectrum of smart manufacturing with hands-on, active problem-solving,’” Richards points out.

In addition to the Smart Factory, the manufacturing ecosystem at Purdue Polytechnic consists of three companion facilities that are linked via networks and data streams for real-time information and analytics. Each facility fulfills its own manufacturing need, such as supplying analytics or producing subassemblies.

The Intelligent Process Manufacturing Laboratory connects operations using Internet of Things (IoT) technology, enabling real-time monitoring with network-wide visibility and remote visualization of processes. Students collect data from sensors and devices, perform analytics, create a knowledge database, and develop operational intelligence from manufacturing systems. Using simulation and virtualization techniques, they create digital twins to perform optimization, identify bottlenecks, correct design mistakes and explore process adjustments.

The Industrial IoT Laboratory incorporates the design, prototyping, testing and implementation of embedded applications, allowing data from product or process to be exchanged across a network using wireless, mobile and internet technologies. Students internalize IoT, data, AI and connectivity to develop applications for remote monitoring, controlling operations across networks and develop intelligent edge applications with cloud connectivity.

The Smart Foundry is a working, smart cyber-physical production system that incorporates sensor-embedded, smart micro manufacturing for metal casting and small-batch component-making. Activities feature integration between humans, machines, products and processes, while using system interconnectivity, intelligence and real-time data.

Updike says the four facilities are Purdue’s answer to an industry in transformation, tailor-made to close the skills gap plaguing manufacturers today. “By integrating experiential learning with sophisticated technology, the new curriculum is designed to propel [our] graduates to the forefront of the manufacturing sector,” he claims.

The labs boast a suite of state-of-the-art technologies, from AI and robotics to cloud computing, providing a comprehensive curriculum that mirrors the complex systems used in modern manufacturing settings. Students have the opportunity to use real industry equipment and technology firsthand.

“The facilities are the final component in establishing Purdue Polytechnic’s new Smart Manufacturing Industrial Informatics degree,” says Updike. “This interdisciplinary program synergizes science, engineering, information systems and computing, focusing on Industry 4.0. The new facility ecosystem also has wide-ranging applications, opening up potential curriculum expansion for all other engineering technology degrees.”

State-of-the-Art Assembly Line

The Smart Factory, which is sponsored by Accenture and Microsoft, includes a manual and automated assembly line that is 55 feet long and 16 feet wide. It’s located in a 4,700-square-foot room inside Dudley Hall, a new facility on Purdue’s main campus that opened one year ago.

Richards and his colleagues got the idea for the facility after a trip to Germany’s Reutlingen University, which has a similar smart learning factory on its campus.

Purdue Polytechnic held a design competition among students to create a product that could be easily built in-house. The winner was “scoot,” a hybrid scooter-skateboard that consists of 47 parts.

The vertically integrated factory floor is divided into several manufacturing segments, including an automated parts storage and retrieval system, a plastic injection-molding machine and a five-axis CNC machining center.

Currently, 50 percent of the parts used in scoot are made in-house, such as hand grips and wheels. The long-term goal is to eventually make other components, such as metal axles and trucks, in the nearby foundry and link the two facilities with automated guided vehicles. Other parts will be made in-house with additive manufacturing technology.

The heart of the Smart Factory is its assembly line, which was built by BBS Automation Chicago Inc. While it was building the system, the systems integrator invited several summer interns from Purdue to work on the project.

“We tried to design the system around Purdue’s curriculum,” says Chad Ross, senior sales engineer at BBS Automation. “That was very challenging, because they wanted us to design the assembly line to ‘work and break.’ Our system enables Purdue professors to program in flaws on purpose, which allows students to find problems and make necessary improvements.

“The focus of the assembly line is not about building products,” explains Ross. “It’s really about giving students hands-on experience with a working production line that generates lots of data for them to analyze and learn from. Students can pull data off the line and evaluate it, then make updates to make the process operate more efficiently.

“That was a challenge for us, because we always try to build machines and systems that are as solid, sound and bulletproof as possible,” notes Ross. “For educational purposes, Purdue wanted the opposite.”

“The idea is that the students get a real, physical experience with an actual production machine,” adds Jim Fikert, senior controls engineer at BBS. “For the students doing assembly, they can look at this automated process and say ‘Hey, how is it doing this task better?’ From there, they get software experience by performing optimization and debugging for the software.”

“They basically wanted a ‘restart button’ that enables professors to go into the controls and purposely let students in one class play with and break it, then turnaround and reset everything for the next class,” says Ross. “Therefore, we made some things redundant on purpose. That way, students can collect two sets of different data, correlate it and understand how it works.”

“We want to expose students to different scenarios where failure becomes a learning event,” explains Richards. “We have inaccurate or unobtainable objectives so that failure occurs early and often.”

According to Richards, too many young kids today aren’t taught about failure. To address that issue, Purdue wants the next generation of engineers to be prepared for real-world manufacturing environments where things often can and do go wrong.

While the assembly line is educational, it uses real-world manufacturing technology. And, the system is unique to Purdue. For instance, it combines elements of both automated and manual assembly.

That flexibility enables Richards and his colleagues to have an automated truck assembly line and a manual truck assembly line. Students can pull data from each process to compare productivity, quality and other factors.

There is an automated cell that features one SCARA and three six-axis robots from Epson Robots and a flexible bowl feeder from Ars Automation. In addition, there are six lean, “connected worker” cells that use six cobots from Universal Robots. Assembly processes used include pressing and screwdriving.

The assembly line also has a fully automated pallet-based conveyor system from Shuttleworth, a Keyence 3D bin-picking system and an augmented reality visual guidance system from LightGuide. In addition, the system has various components from Bosch Rexroth Corp., Cognex, ESTIC America Inc., Ingersoll Rand, Markforged, OnRobot and Starline.

Connecting everything together is software and digital tools from companies such as Accenture, Fortinet, Microsoft, PTC and Rockwell Automation.

“In a few years, Purdue wants to change over and retrofit the assembly line to produce a completely different product,” says Ross. “Their intent is to keep the basic footprint, but move assembly cells around. And, as new production technologies become available, they can be easily integrated into the existing system.

“This was our first time working with a university,” explains Ross. “But, we plan to help other schools develop similar systems in the future.”