2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

In this Work-in-Progress paper, a scaffolding training for Workforce 4.0 was described. The onset of Industry 4.0, sometimes known as the fourth industrial revolution, will add new challenges to the shortage of skilled labor, such as CNC programmers and machinists. Like any new technology, new job categories are emerging that require new skill sets, presumably not replacing the current workforce but rather reinventing it. Some projections claim that between 75 and 375 million workers globally may need to change their occupational categories by 2030 due to a sizable amount of employment being automated or digitized.

The fourth industrial revolution introduces the integration of digital technologies into the manufacturing process to increase productivity and efficiency. The phrase "digital manufacturing technologies" (DMTs) describes the use of smart, digital, autonomous, and intelligent technologies, including sensor, cloud, distributed, and additive manufacturing, in modern industry. This new wave of industrialization is anticipated to improve the quality of work by fostering an environment that gives workers more autonomy for self-development and problem-solving. The workers are expected to make strategic decisions and find adaptable solutions to engineering problems in a timely manner. For example, in an automated system involving industrial robots, Workforce 4.0, a new breed of skilled workers can play a more creative and active role.

Within a vertically integrated project program of a large private university, a systematic training scheme was developed for training undergraduate students with the xArm educational robot, as mentioned in our previous ASEE publication. The goal of the training is to lay the technical foundations for undergraduate students who have no experience in robotics for their future careers as Workforce 4.0. By the end of the training, the students should be ready to solve open-ended problems in automated production lines.

The overall training lasts 12 weeks in total. 15 students participate in the training. The training scheme has been divided into two major blocks: the first block is the foundational training, and the second block is the advanced training. In the foundational training, the first week is to understand fundamentals by reviewing at least five research papers. The second week is to work on the mechanical assembly of the xArm robots. Robotic kinematics is introduced from the third to the fifth week. In the advanced training, the students were then divided into two specialized groups based on their own interests: Computer Vision (CV) and Natural Language Processing (NLP). There is a seminar about the Robotic Operation System (ROS). The final week is to assess training outcomes. Collaborative teams are formed to build a mini version of a production line using xArm robots, a conveyor belt, and selected sensors. An end-of-course learning assessment survey indicated that students self-reported improved understanding of the course topics.