Chippewa Valley Times

A robotic arm swings across a platform, stops, and lowers its wrist to pick up a small wooden block with its vacuum grip. The wrist rises and the arm pivots, stops, and lowers again to place the block on top of another, forming the second row of a pyramid.

Across the room, other robots are feeding blocks onto conveyor belts or picking up plastic pegs to balance them on top of blocks.

The driving force behind these manufacturing feats is fourteen teams of two – students in Program Director Paul Craig’s Advanced Industrial Robotics and Vision System Integration course.

In UW-Stout’s Robotics Lab, which houses over half a million dollars worth of equipment, students gain hands-on experience with FANUC LR Mate 200iD robots designed for assembly, material handling, and machine tending; Universal Robot 3e Collaborative robots for light assembly tasks; and Cognex cameras providing 2D and 3D vision systems for machines.

The learning begins in a computer lab in Fryklund Hall at the Robert F. Cervenka School of Engineering. Here, students program machines using industry-standard software like FANUC Roboguide, Universal Robots simulator, and Cognex In-Sight Explorer. They view digital replicas on their screens before applying their offline programs in real-time at the Robotics Lab.

Craig has been teaching engineering courses at UW-Stout for 14 years. He continually updates his curriculum to ensure his students stay current with industry practices.

“There’s a lot of material to cover with modules on FANUC robots, Universal Robots, and Cognex vision systems running concurrently through the semester. This gives students the most applied engineering experience possible,” he said.

“I have students in manufacturing engineering and engineering technology, as well as those pursuing dual Bachelor of Science degrees in manufacturing engineering and mechanical engineering.”

In the Robotics Lab, seniors Aidan Clifford from Wausau and Ryan Myers from Kenosha work as lab technicians under Craig's supervision. They assist peers in troubleshooting program issues.

At one station, Jackson Majerus and Nathan Notch use a digital Teach Pendant – similar to a large remote – to set up their program on a Universal Robot. When they encounter an issue where the robot repeats motions instead of progressing correctly along a sequence, Majerus explains: “We needed it to run on pallet-mode... But we had it set on loop-mode.”

Notch adds that unlike AI, robots do not learn from errors: “The robot will keep doing what it is programmed to do... until it is shut off or reprogrammed correctly.”

Ben Gurka from Beloit and Isaac Shefka from Appleton team up at another Universal Robot station. Gurka highlights that both FANUC and Universal Robots are widely used in manufacturing industries: “These applications are helping us get familiar with the robots used in industry.”

Gurka mentions that automation saves time by relieving workers from repetitive tasks during his internships involving both types of robots.

Teams working with Cognex cameras help integrate vision systems into robotic operations by uploading images that guide machine actions accurately within production lines. Clifford elaborates: "You upload pictures... Eventually you integrate the vision system with the robot."

Craig uses funds from his Fulton and Edna Holtby Manufacturing Engineering Chair position (2024-26) for new equipment such as AI-based Cognex snap cameras to enhance student learning experiences further.

Craig also completed Universal Robots Teacher Certification Training enabling him access core robotics training courses which benefit his students who can earn equivalent certificates through final exams by Universal Robots themselves.

“Having that certification is great booster our resumes," said Shefka who previously programmed FANUC robot play chess earlier course."

UW-Stout offers unique B.S Manufacturing Engineering Program among Universities Wisconsin only undergraduate kind country graduates report high employment rates post-graduation Career Services First Destination Report details success rate while various other degree programs offered university provide comprehensive education field robustly supported new minor advanced automation robotics preparing future workforce needs addressed Universities Wisconsin 2023 workforce proposal

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