As part of the campus expansion in 2021, the UAS St. Pölten created on approx. 200m² new spaces for practice-oriented teaching and self-designed learning concepts in the field of electronic, industry and fabrication technologies. Divided into three thematical spaces, the labs offer students and interested parties possibilities for teaching and testing current digitalization and Industry 4.0 use cases and technologies.
The industry 4.0 Lab is oriented towards the workplaces of tomorrow, where human-machine interaction and new forms of data transmission will become part of everyday life. Therefor several thematically assigned table islands, are installed in the lab. For example, learning installations from the areas of vision systems, small, safety and easy to use training robots, education hardware form well known industry manufacturer, as prototyping equipment for developing and testing IoT middleware (Internet of Things).
The Makers’ Lab is the ideal space for students and researchers to realize their projects. The makers’ lab area combines craft work and digital production technologies. There, users are able to cutting, sawing or drilling or use some digital technologies such as 3D printing and laser cutting. In Lab are installed some professional machines like the EpilogLaser system or the raise3d printers.
With the electronics lab the UAS St. Pölten offer another separate room to research, learn and experiment. The lab is designed to impart knowledge in the fields of electrical-, mechanical- and software engineering. The laboratory offers a large inventory of tools, measuring instruments, components, sensors and actuators as well as powerful computer systems including current software packages in the area of simulation and development.
Education
The Labs are well integrated into several study courses. Lessons in the field of electronic or mechanical basic take place but also specific topics like industrial control and security or IoT prototyping and digital healthcare were held in the rooms. The Labs are used for a broad range of learners, not only for the students of the university, there are some courses and programs for pupils but also for interested people and companies, like basic 3D printing or IoT. The Labs are involved in several cooperation programs like science academy (for pupils) and DIH-OST (workshops for SMEs). Especially the makers lab could be used as a project room for research and thesis projects from students and researchers of the UAS St. Pölten.
Research
Students and Researchers can use the labs for there projects in the field of digitalization topics such as production technologies or the Internet of Things at projects they are also involving pupils, companies, and other interested persons. For building some testcases and prototypes they are able to use lab hardware like the laser cutter, 3D printer, robots or IoT tracking equipment.
In the research projects, we can carry out test setups in the lab and also leave them in place to develop them further. Currently, we are working with asset tracking systems that are set up in the lab and are testing various parameters such as accuracy, availability, battery life, etc. We also work with AR/VR technologies where stationary is equally important due to the hardware setup (desktop PC, Lighthouse etc).
Furthermore, due to the independent IT infrastructure, the lab allows to connect various systems via MQTT. Currently we are working on the interface between cobot and BCI (Brain Computer Interface) to control the cobot.
Industry cooperation
At the moment we are working in 2 large cooperation projects with each more than 10 partners from the industry in common research and development scenarios. In addition, we are working on about 5 industry projects with a corporate partner. Furthermore, we are conducting various small feasibility studies with RFID technologies in industrial enviroments.
TRAAK 4.0 (10 partners)
Setting up tracking & tracing technologies can be difficult. Companies often perceive :
• high initial investments
• strong dependency on the providers of tracking & tracing devices
• insufficient knowledge about the functional scope of these technologies as major challenges
To support companies in introducing tracking technologies, use cases are identified and prototypes are implemented in a common effort with researchers from St.Pölten UAS. The prototypes provide insight into how accurate the tracking works, whether the technology can be applied to the whole production chain, and what an overall implementation would cost.
Impact XR (26 partners)
Enhancing the perception of reality (Augmented Reality, AR) with the help of technical means as well as building environments in which the boundaries between real and virtual worlds become blurred (Mixed Reality, MR) offer new possibilities of collaboration and data visualization. Many sectors might profit from this development, however, it is not yet widely known how such technologies could be usefully applied and which advantages and potentials they harbour. The project IMPACT-XR seeks to close this gap by developing a training and assistance concept. This includes task-related planning, execution and production information that makes it easier for users to intuitively learn new working methods and apply technical know-how. The concept relies on AR and MR technologies and approaches (XR in short) to support trainings for or during assembly or maintenance processes as well as in quality control.
