exactly how to train young engineers in industrial automation is a thorny issue. most factories have huge things that can do a great deal of damage as well as expense tons of money if the newbie triggers a crash. Solution: shrink the factory down to desktop size and let them method on that.
Luckily for [Vadim], there’s an off-the-shelf solution for miniaturizing factory automation: FischerTechnik industrial training models. The designs have motors, conveyors, pneumatic cylinders, as well as sensors galore, however the controller is not precisely the market basic programmable logic controller (PLC). [Vadim] set out to treatment this by building an interface between the FischerTechnik designs as well as a Siemens PLC. He went with a couple of revisions of his board, including one utilizing rivets from the stitching store to interface with the FischerTechnic connectors. Eventually, he settled on more robust connectors as well as came up with a board that lets trainees delve into PLC programming without killing anyone. The video below shows it going with its paces; we can only picture where playing with these kits as a youngster would have led us.
As fantastic as [Vadim]’s system is for training engineers, we can likewise see it useful in getting youngsters thinking about a career in industrial automation. We just recently covered a similar effort to show youngsters huge science utilizing LEGO Mindstorms. Both of these can assist get STEM youngsters to see the wider world of technical careers as well as perhaps steer them into automation. After all, the people who make the robots are most likely going to be the last ones obsoleted, right?
