Teaching Methods on Education for Industrial Robot Engineering and Their Results - Particularly the Utilization of Hands-on Training on Air Robot with a System of Pattern Recognizing-

As the need for switchover to FA and for rationalization increases in the industrial world, educational courses in schools are more and more taking up the subjects of electronic machines, mechatronics and systems, etc., subjects which are a fusion of the previous subjects of electricity, electronics and machines. At our junior college, a control engineering course was inaugurated in 1974 prior to any other schools that offered such courses. As automation progressed, the use of industrial robots spread rapidly. The year of 1980 is regarded as the first year that the use of industrial robots become widespread. Responding to the current requests, a one-year research course was added to the control engineering course in 1983. Moreover, a robot engineering course was newly established in 1984, in which mechatronics and industrial robotics were instructed intensively in high efficiency. As a teaching aid, an air robot system which was based particularly on the FMS model and possessed pattern recognition capabilities was completed in 1982. This system has been used since then as the nucleus for hands-on training with robots and systems. As more and more intelligent machines and artificial intelligence become widespread in industry, these subjects are taking on greater importance and greater sophistication in the education offered by this department. Educational institutions are seeking to provide facilities and curricula which will meet the technological needs of this age. Our college is not an institution at the graduate school level, but rather a school which is at the more practical junior college level. An outline of the facilities introduced at our school is presented and the results of utilizing it in industrial robot engineering education is reported.