Experimental Learning Factory

An experimental learning set-up is avialable for first year students of the bachelor programme Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM). Students starting the IEM programme are relatively unexperienced with an industrial enviroment and the kind of systems such an environment consists of. Although the IEM department owns several research instruments (e.g. extruders for plastics, small robots and other mechatronic equipment), there was not yet a setup available in which logistics, robots and process technology, as can be found in many factories, are integrated.

As the IEM programme has a strong and (for the Netherlands) unique focus on the technical aspects of the IEM research field , the availability of a factory-like environment is key for the students. In the realstic scale model with autonomous transport and distribute systems connected to manufacturing stations and warehouse sites, the student is confronted with real and active systems to be controlled.

The configuration is developed in cooperation with Festo BV and made possible by a donation from PATO (Foundation for Postgraduate Technical Education) and the Faculty of Science and Engineering.