Strategic Use of Smart Factory Concepts for Flexible and Hybrid Learning for Engineering Students in the Field of Automation Technology

The increasingly digitalized world of work is creating new requirements that impact engineering education. The promotion of applied professional competences includes the engagement of students in industry-specific technologies, the development of methodological approaches for the information and technological support of teaching and the integration of smart factory concepts to prepare engineering students for the current challenges of transformation processes (sustainability, digitalization, artificial intelligence, heterogeneity, inclusion). This article analyses the following research question: What methodologies for fostering students’ competences are needed to make it possible to increase the effectiveness of integrated forms of engineering education based on collaboration with industrial companies and other universities and colleges, including at international level? The focus is on the synergy between traditional teaching approaches and modern technologies to create an interactive and practice-orientated learning environment. The concept presented here combines the cyber-physical system (CP-Lab from Festo) as the basic technology of smart factories with the mobile robotics platform Robotino and augmented reality glasses HMT-1 from Real Wear. This provides learners with flexible opportunities to deepen theoretical concepts and develop practical skills by controlling production equipment, collecting data and performing analyses. In various settings, several preliminary studies have already been conducted to determine a “best-practice” model of the planned approach. Prior knowledge is taken into account by adapting the cyber-physical system and the application scenario for students in the teacher training programmes of the industrial-technical subjects (GTF) in the bachelor’s and master’s degree programmes (mechanical engineering and electrical engineering). The merging of prior knowledge from the fields of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and computer science into a common mechatronic content suggests that further development of this approach should be considered as a single interdisciplinary module. Further in-depth investigations are required regarding the development of instructional videos and simulations to meet the specified requirements. The integration of other learning tools such as chatbots and virtual reality (VR) technology should also be the subject of future research.