As a mechanical engineering senior set to graduate in December, Nathan DeMuth has taken a lot of classes through The University of Toledo’s College of Engineering.
None have been quite like Automation Design.
Nathan DeMuth, a mechanical engineering senior, manipulates a robotic arm in the College of Engineering’s Mechatronics Lab.
“It’s a lot more hands-on,” said DeMuth, who paused to chat while he and two classmates tinkered with a camera-equipped device known as a machine vision system after a recent class. “It’s a lot more applicable to what I can expect to be doing in a full-time career.”
That’s the goal of Automation Design, which is one of the first courses to utilize the College of Engineering’s new Mechatronics Lab. The Mechatronics Lab opened following recent renovations to the North Engineering Building and is now fully outfitted with cutting-edge equipment funded in part through the Ohio Department of Higher Education’s Regionally Aligned Priorities in Delivering Skills (RAPIDS) and Super RAPIDS programs.
The RAPIDS and Super RAPIDS programs support equipment investments for developing and supporting regional workforce development initiatives that support Ohio-based industry. Recent state-identified areas for investment have included advanced manufacturing, automotive and advanced mobility and cybersecurity.
Program grants have allowed the college to install new robots, machine vision systems and other equipment valued at nearly $177,000 in the Mechatronics Lab.
“Mechatronics is in high demand in the workforce,” said Dr. Jared Oluoch, interim chair and associate professor in the Department of Engineering Technology. “Our Mechatronics Lab is equipping our students to meet this need, while supporting a collaborative and project-based curriculum that challenges them to think critically and learn from each other.”
The Mechatronics Lab is operated by the Department of Engineering Technology and open to students across the College of Engineering. It’s in line with the college’s experiential learning model, emphasizing problem solving, technical skills and extensive laboratory experience — all critical in a course like Automation Design.
Brayden Darr, left, an electrical engineering technology senior, and Devin Legg, a mechanical engineering senior, work with a programmable logic controller (PLC) in the College of Engineering’s Mechatronics Lab.
Automation Design is by no means the first course to teach students elements of mechatronics, an interdisciplinary field of engineering that marries mechanical engineering and electronics. But it is the first to adopt such a hands-on approach in doing so, encouraging students to explore the integration and programming of robotic automation systems.
DeMuth and his classmates offered one example after their recent class.
The setup on which they were working incorporated a Cognex machine vision system and a Siemens programmable logic controller (PLC). If expanded and scaled, it could be deployed in advanced manufacturing to visually distinguish and then automatically sort items — one type from another, for example, or viable from non-viable.
“Right now we’re working on getting the Cognex to work with the Siemens,” DeMuth said.
Across the room another group of students was working with one of seven robotic arms installed in the Mechatronics Lab. They started the course writing and testing simple programs to control the arm, explained Kyle Klinski, a mechanical engineering senior, and have since evolved into more complex functions incorporating machine vision.
Klinski’s thoughts on the course echoed those of his classmates.
“This is the most hands-on class that I’ve had so far,” he said.
