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- Fachbereich Elektrotechnik, Maschinenbau, Technikjournalismus (3) (remove)
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The proper use of protective hoods on panel saws should reliably prevent severe injuries from (hand) contact with the blade or material kickbacks. It also should minimize long-term lung damages from fine-particle pollution. To achieve both purposes the hood must be adjusted properly by the operator for each workpiece to fit its height. After a work process is finished, the hood must be lowered down completely to the bench. Unfortunately, in practice the protective hood is fixed at a high position for most of the work time and herein loses its safety features. A system for an automatic height adjustment of the hood would increase comfort and safety. If the system can distinguish between workpieces and skin reliably, it furthermore will reduce occupational hazards for panel saw users. A functional demonstrator of such a system has been designed and implemented to show the feasibility of this approach. A specific optical sensor system is used to observe a point on the extended cut axis in front of the blade. The sensor determines the surface material reliably and measures the distance to the workpiece surface simultaneously. If the distance changes because of a workpiece fed to the machine, the control unit will set the motor-adjusted hood to the correct height. If the sensor detects skin, the hood will not be moved. In addition a camera observes the area under the hood. If there are no workpieces or offcuts left under the hood, it will be lowered back to the default position.
In this paper we present a new initiative to promote collaborative learning through industry partnered, interdisciplinary, student and user centred projects. This was achieved through the development of rehabilitation devices augmented with gamified software. Today development of software systems often requires people from different specialities who can work in multidisciplinary teams to achieve a common objective. A key challenge, therefore, is producing graduates with an understanding of a number of disparate skills across many discipline boundaries. Undergraduates may be knowledgeable in one specific discipline but will not be aware of the issues brought to bear by other relevant disciplines. In an effort to overcome this limitation, a cross-discipline course “Serious Games and Welfare Technology” was developed that allows students from different disciplines to work together to produce innovative, technology- supported health solutions. The course, an EU funded Erasmus+ initiative, was supported by a MOOC and enabled multi- disciplined and multinational teams to produce solutions for leading Health technology companies in the areas of rehabilitation and aging support. Following the first year of offering the course with a cohort of students from 5 countries, we report on the experiences and outcomes achieved from a number of viewpoints.
