RAINIO, Timo & TUOKKO, Reijo
Tampere University of Technology, Institute of Production Engineering, P.O.Box 589, 33101 Tampere, Finland, Tel. +358 3 365 2111, Fax +358 3 365 2753, rainio@cc.tut.fi, tuokko@cc.tut.fi
Abstract: Tampere Automation Center TAC (http://www.tacnet.sci.fi) is a unic cooperative network in the field of mechanical engineering and automation technology. The main task the center is to make the work of the participating organisations more effective and productive by improving cooperation and the flow of information. The cooperation is coordinated by Tampere University of Technology, and the other educational member organizations are: Tampere Polytechnic University, Vocational School of Pirkanmaa, Vocational School of Tampere (Units of Hervanta and Pyynikki) and Vocational Adult Education Centre of Tampere. Other included partners are the Technical Research Center of Finland (VTT) and a large number of industrial companies. Quite new methods and cooperation models have been developed and applied in cooperation between these educational institutions and industrial companies so that this TAC-cooperation has achieved a status of a respected pioneer in the field in Finland.
The paper discusses the developed cooperative educational network, which enables comprehensive supply of education and training for students at different levels (from vocational schools up to university level) as well as for employees of companies. Different types of education include e.g. seminars, basic educational courses of the schools, tailored educational courses and programs. Versatile teaching staff and teaching methods and state-of-the-art educational environments offer good prerequisites for this.
Keywords: Automation, Education, Network, Learning environment
The Tampere Region Centre of Expertise brings together those who know, can and do. Whether one operates within training or research the centre offers a unique co-oparation network through which can be broadcasted services to bold, developing companies. The Tampere Region Centre of Expertise supports regional strenghts, for example, in the following areas of expertise: Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Information and Communication Technology, Health Care Technology, Communications and Knowledge Intesive Business Services (Fig.1.).
Through Tampere Region Centre of Expertise Programme companies can receive information and forefront knowledge of international standars that help refine. The business toward results, whether whether the companies is at the earliest stages of development or seeking a way to a new branch of growth.
Know-how in mechanical engineering and automation in Tampere region competes in global markets. the products hold a position as pioneers, and reseacrh in the region is strongly international. In the area there is more than 400 enterprises in the field and they employ more than 26 000 people. The turnover together is approximately 10 billion FIM.
Fig 1. Fiels of expertise of Tampere Region Centre of Expertise programme 1999-2006 (Source: Tampere Technology Centre Ltd.)
Tampere Automation Center TAC (http://www.tacnet.sci.fi) is a unic cooperative network in the field of mechanical engineering and automation technology (Fig.2.). The main task the center is to make the work of the participating organisations more effective and productive by improving cooperation and the flow of information. Quite new methods and cooperation models have been developed and applied in cooperation between these educational institutions and industrial companies so that this TAC-cooperation has achieved a status of a respected pioneer in the field in Finland.
Fig. 2. Organisational structure of Tampere Automation Center
During the information system project a forum called TACnet (http://www.tacnet.sci.fi) has been created for use of the participating organizations (Fig.3.). Through it related companies, educational and research organizations can be found easily. The evolution of TACnet continues as part of an center of expertise program in Tampere region. The goal is that TACnet evolves to an internationally remarkable Internet-site serving especially companies working on machine manufacturing and automation branches. The site would be active as a part of the international network of EU and even wider at global level in cooperation with other similar sites.
Fig. 3. Home page of TACnet
Electrical service center –project aims to support active organisations in introduction of the newest computer technology. Tampere Technology Centre Ltd. takes responsibility for this project and carries out the project in cooperation with Tampere University of Techology, Tevanake-center and additional education center of Jyväskylä University.
During The TACnet-information project TAC has studied and developed usage possibilities to use Internet as a tool for companies and research institutes and was marketed the knowhow of schools and institutes. TAC has also promoted use of Internet for public cooperation, communication and project management.
TAC has been responsible of a partial project "electrical project working", which wants to create an operational model that uses electrical networks and tools needed for supporting project working. With this Extranet-toolbox one can control different parts of project type activities including e.g.:
Within TAC there has already been over 5 years of development in education co-operation in automation branch at Tampere region. Following objectives were set for the first phase of OPM-funded (Ministry of Education) TAC co-operation project in education in academic year 1995-96:
The purpose of the objectives stated above was to strengthen current co-operation and seek new possibilities and thus create a common, solid automation education entity that utilizes resources as effective as possible.
In the first phase of the TAC education project the aim above all was to review the current status and create the basis for co-operation subsequently and also seek those methods and guidelines, that will be the basis for education in the future.
In consequential phases of the overall TAC co-ordination project experiments have been made with some teaching environments to evaluate their capabilities for distant learning. In this way the goal has been to find out
The developed cooperative educational network enables comprehensive supply of education and training for students at different levels (from vocational schools up to university level) as well as for employees of companies. Different types of education include e.g. seminars, basic educational courses of the schools, tailored educational courses and programs. Versatile teaching staff and teaching methods and state-of-the-art educational environments offer good prerequisites for this.
TAC-education is based on distributed joint educational environments (Fig. 4.) (http://www.tacnet.sci.fi/Opetus). There is versatile information and educational material in the Internet about the equipment and related educational topics. Both the real and virtual environments are available for both schools and companies to be utilized both in basic education and continuing and adult education. Some of those environments are placed in companies which is quite exceptional and against traditions but opens new possibilities for joint education and training.
Fig. 4. Examples of TAC Educational environments
In one research project the objective is to study the activities that the created learning environments enable in immersive virtual world. Equipment and software created in former research offer the user only a very limited possibility to study an educational problem usually via some 2-dimensional numeric or graphical user interface. The most significant goal set will be the modelling of present, real automation entities and virtual prototypes and applying those models, instead of the former user interfaces, to immersive virtual environments, that has been implemented with display and input devices of virtual reality technology. The VR-environments being PC-based, presents a good basis for applying the environment in distant learning, but also causes challenge and need for research to get the environment high quality and immersive enough.
To achieve the goals of the research, a real model of the target is needed. In the high level automation technology education there is a need to study things in systems and entities that are complicated enough. In factory automation the education can, e.g., include control planning, programming and system integration of manufacturing machines, cells, robots and conveyor systems. This can be done even at the factory level.
Use of virtual models and prototypes enables operation at an adequate compexity level in teaching situation without causing danger or damage to equipment or students. Immersiveness substantially enhances the reality atmosphere and strengthens the learning process.
The research program is scheduled to be two-year. On the first year of the program the intention is to accomplish development and combining of VR environments, automation software and teaching programs to achieve an immersive teaching and learning situation at adequate complexity level. On the second year a priorisation of the teaching tasks accomplished with assistance of VR techniques will be made. Projects being aimed to group teaching and on the other hand projects being aimed to the distant learning via internet has to be separated into two different methods because of technical reasons, but both methods still supporting each other.
Tampere Automation Education (TAE) is an ESF-financed educational project of TAC. TAC provides high-quality, up-to-date and comprehensive education directed to small and medium size companies.
Teaching is carried out using TAC´s schools and also education resources that are provided by some companies related to TAC. Teaching is arranged in following schools:
Thanks to wide cooperation network TAC and TAE can offer versatile education in any field of automation and for all levels of employees from normal employees to managers and directors. Because of the network being so comprehensive also bigger education ideas can be carried out (Fig. 5.).
Type of training and education is defined based on background of the students and cultural and operational state of the company:
Fig. 5. Concept of automation education within TAC (Source: Tampere Automation Center)
One top example of this kind of cooperation and joint education and training is the FMS Training Center FMS-TC (http://www.tacnet.sci.fi/Opetus/fms/fastems/aindex82.html) (Fig.6.). The built full-scale flexible manufacturing systems together with specifically and innovatively eveloped and applied information and communication technology enable modern and effective training and learning for groups and individuals.
The Center provides the most up-to-date training with state-of-the-art equipment. The overall training facility consists of two Fastems FMS-installations: one at Tampere University of Technology (TUT) equipped with a Makino A55 machining center, and the other at Fastems Tampere Factory with a Daewoo HMC-50 machining center, a Fanuc 710i-series industrial robot and a CNC lathe. Both systems are equipped with a multilevel automatic storage system and a host control system.
Both of these FMS´s are utilized by various institutes of TUT and other educational institutions as well as the Fastems company. FMS-TC is offering various taylor-made or basic courses due to the customer demands. Basic courses include:
Based on the FMS study, which was made at the end of 1998, the degree of capacity utilization of the FMS-TC was about 90 % in 1998. Even this degree of utilization is exceptional in normal educational environments but the goal is still to double the capacity of the Training Center by utilizing also the evening shift in 1999.
The lack of time and money are two major excuses for companies, if they don't wan't to train their employees. The developed cooperation has tried to find solutions for these problems. The Internet environment about the FMS-TC saves time and money by offering students information about the system and educational topics via Internet. There is also a discussion board for conversations about the topics and a calendar for teachers so that they can make reservations of the environment (Fig. 7.). Special educational programs with applied public financing support enable tailored education and training also for small and medium sized companies.
Fig.6. FMS-Training Center (Source: Tampere Automation Center)
Fig. 7. Reservation of the FMS-Training Center can be done via Internet
Tampere Automation Center -network TACnet: http://www.tacnet.sci.fi/
Educational environments: http://www.tacnet.sci.fi/Opetus
FMS Training Center: http://www.tacnet.sci.fi/Opetus/fms/fastems/aindex82.html