Manufacturing engineering is now moving into the digital era, otherwise known as Industry 4.0. Th... more Manufacturing engineering is now moving into the digital era, otherwise known as Industry 4.0. The next paradigm shift that is fast approaching and this is the era of personalisation and customisation, known as Industry 5.0. To facilitate this personalisation of products, human and technology must work together seamlessly in a manner where the best of both is leveraged. Human centred systems are at the heart of this revolution. One of the most important enablers of this change is the education of our technologists, our university degrees and post graduate programmes must embed this expertise into their core modules. This contribution looks the educational aspects of the MSc in Engineering Management in the Technical University of Vienna Austria (TUWien) as an example of education which has evolved to facilitate emerging trends. An introduction and a short history of this executive postgraduate MSc is presented, as it is a long established and well know programme which dates back to 1995.
Abstract In Ireland 2019 there is an obvious lack of female engineers in the workplace. This pape... more Abstract In Ireland 2019 there is an obvious lack of female engineers in the workplace. This paper investigates the reasons why this is so and if gender diversity is needed in engineering? A qualitative and quantitative study was carried out and the results discussed. Comparison with international data is made and an analysis of the reasons behind the low figures is offered. Finally, potential solutions to attracting and keeping females engaged in engineering are proposed.
In industry, an increased need for further education past the traditional apprenticeship is recog... more In industry, an increased need for further education past the traditional apprenticeship is recognised. There is a known issue with aging maintenance workforce and loss of tacit knowledge through retirement. This paper investigates the skills and knowledge required for the modern maintenance workplace and how this might be implemented in a technician population. Potential educational and pedagogical solutions are offered in this paper, as well as a practical example. Finally, a specific course of learning is suggested.
Modern maintenance is continually concerned with the issue of cost. Equally, there is a need to c... more Modern maintenance is continually concerned with the issue of cost. Equally, there is a need to capture tacit information from an aging workforce. The computerised maintenance management system (CMMS) is an essential part of both these aims, but can it be considered a cost-oriented measure in its own right? This paper examines the role of a CMMS in cost-oriented maintenance as both a decisionmaking tool and data repository, in the context of an Irish medical device production facility.
The IFAC TC 9.5 "Supplemental Ways for Improving International Stability-SWIIS" was one of the lo... more The IFAC TC 9.5 "Supplemental Ways for Improving International Stability-SWIIS" was one of the longest IFAC communities dating back to the 1981 World Congress in Kyoto. In 1983 Austria hosted the first IFAC SWIIS Workshop attracting a unique range of inter-disciplinary contributions. SWIIS expanded into an IFAC Technical Committee (TC 9.5) as a bridge between control scientists and automation engineers and various other disciplines with the common theme of improving human living conditions and explore contributions to a stable and sustainable planet. Whilst the "heartbeat" of TC 9.5 has remained, the scope has expanded as the TC grew and developed, and the world changed to the present status and perspective. This contribution starts with a short history of SWIIS and because of the changing scope the transformation to TECIS in 2011. This was necessary for including new actual topics. Finally an outlook in the future, emphasising new topics, will be given in this paper.
International Journal of Business & Technology, 2016
Process – and manufacturing automation as well as robotics are currently one of the fast growing ... more Process – and manufacturing automation as well as robotics are currently one of the fast growing fields in automation. Advanced process control, cyber-physical systems, industry 4.0 and “advanced robots” are no longer a headline. They are in realization. As a consequence of these developments new social, ethical and human questions appear. Therefore this contribution is a first report about the continuous “modernization” of the Mechatronics Management BSc and MSc programs which are successful running at UBT. Both programs were developed in the framework of two TEMPUS projects from an international consortium from 2006 to 2009. Since that time new “buzzwords” appears. For a contemporary education of the participants these new subjects have to be included in the curricula.
International Journal of Business & Technology, 2012
Automation of water flow at plastering machines is a solution which serves the process of plaster... more Automation of water flow at plastering machines is a solution which serves the process of plastering, to adhere international standards. Automation of water flow by taking signals from the condition of the material depending on humidity. So its output is used to influence the increase or decrease of the amount of water flow in the valve. Water flow automation is a system which consists of several components in which the already, develop different processes. To release the feedback we need a sensor which is built by piezoelemnt in which we have the phenomenon of the frequency. With which we have to create a variable signal at the entrance of electronic board . This signal varies depending on the moisture condition to the material of the exit of machine. Electronic board which is part of an intelligent system where we have 6 incoming signals and 4 signals at its output. We have an actuator which depending on the orders it receives from electronic board in valve reacts and works to inc...
This article presents the service robot ROBCO 18 and how it is designed to be cost-oriented. The ... more This article presents the service robot ROBCO 18 and how it is designed to be cost-oriented. The purpose of ROBCO 18 is to support elderly and disabled, acting as a personal home assistant. The robot will be able effectively to assist people in their homes. The robot is designed to be cost-oriented, using low-cost devices and components. Robot control software has been developed to allow various interfaces and control methods to be used. The robot software system optimizes and distributes data from the robot's sensors and actuators. In this way, elderly and disabled people are safe in handling the robot and can choose their convenient method of robot control. Finally, we conducted experiments with elderly people to test how the robot is performing different tasks. As a conclusion usability review of the Cost Oriented Tele-Controlled Service Robot for Increasing the Quality of Life of Elderly and Disabled-ROBCO 18 is presented.
Recently there has been an approach to adopt Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) in different indu... more Recently there has been an approach to adopt Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) in different industries. While companies in production sector struggle to maintain their presence in the marketplace, the need for new methodologies and tools has become critical. Adopting PLM varies from business to business and the downside has been determined to be the cost and longevity. Many authors have stated that PLM helps companies regarding innovation and faster product delivery to the market, however, such studies require more time and effort to scientifically provide strong evidence. The overall aim of the study is to investigate the PLM presence in Kosovo and Albania. The research base relies on literature review in reference to PLM relevant importance to the industry, definition, and questioner interviews with companies. The study provides the current self-evaluation of the current state of PLM drivers through statistical means.
Managing and using IT services is considered very important for modern businesses to improve thei... more Managing and using IT services is considered very important for modern businesses to improve their performance. IT Governance supports businesses to plan and control the IT investments to achieve their business objectives. IT Governance is part of enterprise governance which contributes to the management of IT resources, with focus on prioritization and justification of IT investments, controlling, budgeting and defining authorization levels. IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is one of the IT Governance frameworks that provides a systematic approach to IT Governance. In reference to this research, the study is based on secondary data. The study is focused on understanding the ITIL framework in relation to IT Governance. Additionally, this paper contributes to IT investments and IT resource management in an organization, starting with technological changes, reduction of operating costs, maintenance, decisionmaking process with the focus to improve organization sustainability.
One of the main tasks of SWIIS is the application of systems-and control engineering methods for ... more One of the main tasks of SWIIS is the application of systems-and control engineering methods for international conflict resolution. In the past the classical approaches from control theory, simulation, decision making…. were used. Here a new idea-application of a very well known tool from production automation "advanced robots"will be presented. A selected field for international stability or conflict resolution is "humanitarian demining", which has grown dramatically in the last decade. These robots of the new generation offer possibilities to solve this task in a very efficient way. Finally new developments in humanitarian demining at present and in the future will be discussed and the concept of autonomous, intelligent robot swarms for cleaning minefields is presented.
Conflict resolution was dominated by more or less verbal approaches some years ago. Nowadays syst... more Conflict resolution was dominated by more or less verbal approaches some years ago. Nowadays system engineering methods, based on well known principles of control engineering, mathematics, statistics are applied to such problems. One of the main problems arising is the description of the static and dynamic behaviour of conflict partners or systems in form of mathematical methods. Such models are determined either in a theoretical or experimental way. Theoretical model building yields to complicated models difficult to handle. Therefore simple models are mostly used determined in a heuristic way. In the paper methods for model building are presented and as an example a simple linear time invariant model is used to describe gas or oil supply and consumption of several countries.
Computer Aided Systems Theory - EUROCAST 2009, 2009
Robotics is a very fast growing field especially in the last years. In the late seventies the fir... more Robotics is a very fast growing field especially in the last years. In the late seventies the first industrial applications of stationary unintelligent industrial robots were realised. Begin of the 90`s a new generation of mobile, intelligent, cooperative robots grows up. This new generation opens new applications areas like in construction, in agriculture, in the food industry, in the household, for medical and rehabilitation applications, in the entertainment industry as well as for leisure and hobby. Current developing trends are humanoid robots and robots supporting humans in every day life. In the future probably ubiquitous robots will support us.
In this paper a humanoid robot for humanitarian demining is described. Humanitarian demining is a... more In this paper a humanoid robot for humanitarian demining is described. Humanitarian demining is an important subject in SWIIS. The robot that is demonstrated in this paper is a tall humanoid robot called "Archie" which is a project of the Technical University of Vienna since the year 2004. The robot has the capability to imitate a human gait and could be used for surfing a mined field. Using biped locomotion instead of the traditional wheel based robots has some benefits; in this paper we will try to cover some of them.
CIMMs (Computer Integrated Manufacturing systems) are important systems for overall automation of... more CIMMs (Computer Integrated Manufacturing systems) are important systems for overall automation of manufacturing enterprises, especially big ones. The general issues of the computer system topology were analyzed earlier. The present case study concerns the detailed design of the optimum LAN for the CIMMs sphere, based on the actual data for a big Polish household appliance manufacturer. For the data, the optimal LAN topology is determined, assuming development of democratic networks. In addition, the optimal topology for the general case is derived.
Manufacturing engineering is now moving into the digital era, otherwise known as Industry 4.0. Th... more Manufacturing engineering is now moving into the digital era, otherwise known as Industry 4.0. The next paradigm shift that is fast approaching and this is the era of personalisation and customisation, known as Industry 5.0. To facilitate this personalisation of products, human and technology must work together seamlessly in a manner where the best of both is leveraged. Human centred systems are at the heart of this revolution. One of the most important enablers of this change is the education of our technologists, our university degrees and post graduate programmes must embed this expertise into their core modules. This contribution looks the educational aspects of the MSc in Engineering Management in the Technical University of Vienna Austria (TUWien) as an example of education which has evolved to facilitate emerging trends. An introduction and a short history of this executive postgraduate MSc is presented, as it is a long established and well know programme which dates back to 1995.
Abstract In Ireland 2019 there is an obvious lack of female engineers in the workplace. This pape... more Abstract In Ireland 2019 there is an obvious lack of female engineers in the workplace. This paper investigates the reasons why this is so and if gender diversity is needed in engineering? A qualitative and quantitative study was carried out and the results discussed. Comparison with international data is made and an analysis of the reasons behind the low figures is offered. Finally, potential solutions to attracting and keeping females engaged in engineering are proposed.
In industry, an increased need for further education past the traditional apprenticeship is recog... more In industry, an increased need for further education past the traditional apprenticeship is recognised. There is a known issue with aging maintenance workforce and loss of tacit knowledge through retirement. This paper investigates the skills and knowledge required for the modern maintenance workplace and how this might be implemented in a technician population. Potential educational and pedagogical solutions are offered in this paper, as well as a practical example. Finally, a specific course of learning is suggested.
Modern maintenance is continually concerned with the issue of cost. Equally, there is a need to c... more Modern maintenance is continually concerned with the issue of cost. Equally, there is a need to capture tacit information from an aging workforce. The computerised maintenance management system (CMMS) is an essential part of both these aims, but can it be considered a cost-oriented measure in its own right? This paper examines the role of a CMMS in cost-oriented maintenance as both a decisionmaking tool and data repository, in the context of an Irish medical device production facility.
The IFAC TC 9.5 "Supplemental Ways for Improving International Stability-SWIIS" was one of the lo... more The IFAC TC 9.5 "Supplemental Ways for Improving International Stability-SWIIS" was one of the longest IFAC communities dating back to the 1981 World Congress in Kyoto. In 1983 Austria hosted the first IFAC SWIIS Workshop attracting a unique range of inter-disciplinary contributions. SWIIS expanded into an IFAC Technical Committee (TC 9.5) as a bridge between control scientists and automation engineers and various other disciplines with the common theme of improving human living conditions and explore contributions to a stable and sustainable planet. Whilst the "heartbeat" of TC 9.5 has remained, the scope has expanded as the TC grew and developed, and the world changed to the present status and perspective. This contribution starts with a short history of SWIIS and because of the changing scope the transformation to TECIS in 2011. This was necessary for including new actual topics. Finally an outlook in the future, emphasising new topics, will be given in this paper.
International Journal of Business & Technology, 2016
Process – and manufacturing automation as well as robotics are currently one of the fast growing ... more Process – and manufacturing automation as well as robotics are currently one of the fast growing fields in automation. Advanced process control, cyber-physical systems, industry 4.0 and “advanced robots” are no longer a headline. They are in realization. As a consequence of these developments new social, ethical and human questions appear. Therefore this contribution is a first report about the continuous “modernization” of the Mechatronics Management BSc and MSc programs which are successful running at UBT. Both programs were developed in the framework of two TEMPUS projects from an international consortium from 2006 to 2009. Since that time new “buzzwords” appears. For a contemporary education of the participants these new subjects have to be included in the curricula.
International Journal of Business & Technology, 2012
Automation of water flow at plastering machines is a solution which serves the process of plaster... more Automation of water flow at plastering machines is a solution which serves the process of plastering, to adhere international standards. Automation of water flow by taking signals from the condition of the material depending on humidity. So its output is used to influence the increase or decrease of the amount of water flow in the valve. Water flow automation is a system which consists of several components in which the already, develop different processes. To release the feedback we need a sensor which is built by piezoelemnt in which we have the phenomenon of the frequency. With which we have to create a variable signal at the entrance of electronic board . This signal varies depending on the moisture condition to the material of the exit of machine. Electronic board which is part of an intelligent system where we have 6 incoming signals and 4 signals at its output. We have an actuator which depending on the orders it receives from electronic board in valve reacts and works to inc...
This article presents the service robot ROBCO 18 and how it is designed to be cost-oriented. The ... more This article presents the service robot ROBCO 18 and how it is designed to be cost-oriented. The purpose of ROBCO 18 is to support elderly and disabled, acting as a personal home assistant. The robot will be able effectively to assist people in their homes. The robot is designed to be cost-oriented, using low-cost devices and components. Robot control software has been developed to allow various interfaces and control methods to be used. The robot software system optimizes and distributes data from the robot's sensors and actuators. In this way, elderly and disabled people are safe in handling the robot and can choose their convenient method of robot control. Finally, we conducted experiments with elderly people to test how the robot is performing different tasks. As a conclusion usability review of the Cost Oriented Tele-Controlled Service Robot for Increasing the Quality of Life of Elderly and Disabled-ROBCO 18 is presented.
Recently there has been an approach to adopt Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) in different indu... more Recently there has been an approach to adopt Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) in different industries. While companies in production sector struggle to maintain their presence in the marketplace, the need for new methodologies and tools has become critical. Adopting PLM varies from business to business and the downside has been determined to be the cost and longevity. Many authors have stated that PLM helps companies regarding innovation and faster product delivery to the market, however, such studies require more time and effort to scientifically provide strong evidence. The overall aim of the study is to investigate the PLM presence in Kosovo and Albania. The research base relies on literature review in reference to PLM relevant importance to the industry, definition, and questioner interviews with companies. The study provides the current self-evaluation of the current state of PLM drivers through statistical means.
Managing and using IT services is considered very important for modern businesses to improve thei... more Managing and using IT services is considered very important for modern businesses to improve their performance. IT Governance supports businesses to plan and control the IT investments to achieve their business objectives. IT Governance is part of enterprise governance which contributes to the management of IT resources, with focus on prioritization and justification of IT investments, controlling, budgeting and defining authorization levels. IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is one of the IT Governance frameworks that provides a systematic approach to IT Governance. In reference to this research, the study is based on secondary data. The study is focused on understanding the ITIL framework in relation to IT Governance. Additionally, this paper contributes to IT investments and IT resource management in an organization, starting with technological changes, reduction of operating costs, maintenance, decisionmaking process with the focus to improve organization sustainability.
One of the main tasks of SWIIS is the application of systems-and control engineering methods for ... more One of the main tasks of SWIIS is the application of systems-and control engineering methods for international conflict resolution. In the past the classical approaches from control theory, simulation, decision making…. were used. Here a new idea-application of a very well known tool from production automation "advanced robots"will be presented. A selected field for international stability or conflict resolution is "humanitarian demining", which has grown dramatically in the last decade. These robots of the new generation offer possibilities to solve this task in a very efficient way. Finally new developments in humanitarian demining at present and in the future will be discussed and the concept of autonomous, intelligent robot swarms for cleaning minefields is presented.
Conflict resolution was dominated by more or less verbal approaches some years ago. Nowadays syst... more Conflict resolution was dominated by more or less verbal approaches some years ago. Nowadays system engineering methods, based on well known principles of control engineering, mathematics, statistics are applied to such problems. One of the main problems arising is the description of the static and dynamic behaviour of conflict partners or systems in form of mathematical methods. Such models are determined either in a theoretical or experimental way. Theoretical model building yields to complicated models difficult to handle. Therefore simple models are mostly used determined in a heuristic way. In the paper methods for model building are presented and as an example a simple linear time invariant model is used to describe gas or oil supply and consumption of several countries.
Computer Aided Systems Theory - EUROCAST 2009, 2009
Robotics is a very fast growing field especially in the last years. In the late seventies the fir... more Robotics is a very fast growing field especially in the last years. In the late seventies the first industrial applications of stationary unintelligent industrial robots were realised. Begin of the 90`s a new generation of mobile, intelligent, cooperative robots grows up. This new generation opens new applications areas like in construction, in agriculture, in the food industry, in the household, for medical and rehabilitation applications, in the entertainment industry as well as for leisure and hobby. Current developing trends are humanoid robots and robots supporting humans in every day life. In the future probably ubiquitous robots will support us.
In this paper a humanoid robot for humanitarian demining is described. Humanitarian demining is a... more In this paper a humanoid robot for humanitarian demining is described. Humanitarian demining is an important subject in SWIIS. The robot that is demonstrated in this paper is a tall humanoid robot called "Archie" which is a project of the Technical University of Vienna since the year 2004. The robot has the capability to imitate a human gait and could be used for surfing a mined field. Using biped locomotion instead of the traditional wheel based robots has some benefits; in this paper we will try to cover some of them.
CIMMs (Computer Integrated Manufacturing systems) are important systems for overall automation of... more CIMMs (Computer Integrated Manufacturing systems) are important systems for overall automation of manufacturing enterprises, especially big ones. The general issues of the computer system topology were analyzed earlier. The present case study concerns the detailed design of the optimum LAN for the CIMMs sphere, based on the actual data for a big Polish household appliance manufacturer. For the data, the optimal LAN topology is determined, assuming development of democratic networks. In addition, the optimal topology for the general case is derived.
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Papers by Peter Kopacek