Good practices in motivation of secondary educators for further education in the STEM area

Od kilkunastu lat mówi się o potrzebie reindustrializacji Europy. Wobec znacznej różnicy w kosztach pracy, warunkiem realizacji tej koncepcji jest wykorzystywanie w przemyśle najnowszych rozwiązań technologii wytwarzania, w tym automatyzacji i robotyzacji. Aby to było możliwe potrzebna jest wykształcona, kompetentna kadra. W Europie jest znaczny potencjał edukacyjny. Jednak od wielu lat nie jest on wykorzystywany w pełni przez Europejczyków. Powodem jest nikłe zainteresowanie młodzieży naukami ścisłymi, a dalej technologicznymi i inżynierskimi. Dlatego konieczne jest podjęcie działań zachęcających młodych ludzi do dalszego kształcenia w obszarze STEM. Istnieją przykłady dobrych praktyk w tym zakresie. Ich wspólnym mianownikiem jest wykorzystanie w kształceniu nowoczesnych narzędzi ICT. W artykule przedstawiono problemy edukacji STEM oraz przegląd i analizę dobrych praktyk z krajów UE.At the end of the 20th century, a very intensive transfer of production activity from Europe to countries with lower labour costs was observed. Over time, it has been recognized that the negative effects of this phenomenon are more significant than benefits. This applies both to the dependence of Europe on external suppliers, including those from countries with unstable political systems, as well as the labour market. For a dozen or so years, we have been talking about the need to reindustrialize Europe. It's about building new production facilities, as well as the return of factories. These activities must have economic justification. In view of the still considerable difference in labour costs, the prerequisite for the advantage of production installations operating in Europe is the use of the latest manufacturing technology solutions, including automation and robotics. To make this possible, a team is needed. There is considerable educational potential in Europe. This applies to both vocational education at the secondary and university level. However, it has not been used by Europeans for many years. At our universities, specialists from outside the EU are trained. The reason is the low interest of young people in exact sciences, and then in technological and engineering. Therefore, it is necessary to take measures to encourage young people to continue their education in the area of STEM. The use of modern ICT tools will be helpful in these activities

Some new robotization problems related to the introduction of collaborative robots into industrial practice

The appearance of collaborative robots is a natural stage of development of industrial robotics. Research aimed at enabling the work of robots and people in the common area (collaborative workspace) have been conducted for several decades. However, only recently the research results are implemented in industrial conditions. This is mainly due to the introduction of lightweight robots of low payload, which are equipped with special construction solutions and functions in the control area. Thanks to this, these devices can safely collaborate with people in a common workspace. The application of a collaborative robot in the robotization project of an industrial process creates new technical problems and more. The robots themselves, as well as robotic installations, must continue to comply with the applicable safety requirements, in accordance with the relevant directives. Introduction to the use of collaborative robots also creates new legal problems. The article presents the current state of development of collaborative robots in the technical, legal and standardization aspect. The presented material is based mainly on information from the Polish market

Optimising a Driving Mechanism Mechanical Design of Exotic Exoskeleton - a Review on Motors and Power Transmission Systems for Upper Limb Exoskeletons and a Case Study

While designing rehabilitation exoskeletons is often realised based on experience and intuition, many processes can be computer-aided. This gives the opportunity to design lighter and more compact constructions. Hence, the devices can be fully wearable and have a wider range of motion. So far, mainly topology optimisation and parametric dimensional optimisations have been used for that. The presented study addresses the problem of automatic selection of the driving systems for exoskeletons. It consists of the literature review of the components used to actuate the joints of such constructions, optimisation algorithm development, and a case study on the EXOTIC exoskeleton. The method includes building a database of motors and gearboxes, computing inverse kinematics of a certain system to obtain angular trajectories from the task-oriented paths, iteration computing inverse dynamics to compute required torque, and the search for the optimal solution according to the defined goal function. This approach enables single joint and multijoint optimisation, with the custom goal function minimising optionally masses, diameters or widths of the selected driving systems. The investigation consists of the 28 simulation trials for EXOTIC exoskeleton to compare results obtained for different aims. Moreover, to visualise the effect, the 1st DOF driving mechanism is redesigned to obtain its minimum width based on the optimisation results. The optimal choice reduced the actuation mechanism mass by 15.3%, while its total dimensions by 17.5%, 8.5% and 26.2%, respectively. The presented approach is easily transferable to any other active exoskeleton and can contribute to designing compact and lightweight constructions. This is particularly important in assistive rehabilitation and can also be used in industrial assistance processes

Study on the Applicability of Digital Twins for Home Remote Motor Rehabilitation

The COVID-19 pandemic created the need for telerehabilitation development, while Industry 4.0 brought the key technology. As motor therapy often requires the physical support of a patient’s motion, combining robot-aided workouts with remote control is a promising solution. This may be realised with the use of the device’s digital twin, so as to give it an immersive operation. This paper presents an extensive overview of this technology’s applications within the fields of industry and health. It is followed by the in-depth analysis of needs in rehabilitation based on questionnaire research and bibliography review. As a result of these sections, the original concept of controlling a rehabilitation exoskeleton via its digital twin in the virtual reality is presented. The idea is assessed in terms of benefits and significant challenges regarding its application in real life. The presented aspects prove that it may be potentially used for manual remote kinesiotherapy, combined with the safety systems predicting potentially harmful situations. The concept is universally applicable to rehabilitation robots