Learning in the AutFab - The Fully Automated Industrie 4.0 Learning Factory of the University of Applied Sciences Darmstadt

The manufacturing industry is currently changing from mass production to customized production, which results in challenges concerning different production aspects. Industrie 4.0, a German strategy, combines several technologies, to meet these challenges. This implies that students need to acquire new competences. Therefore the University of Applied Sciences Darmstadt has established a holistic, fully automated learning factory covering most areas of Industry 4.0. Students of different degree courses learn very successfully in projects as well as in lab courses taught in this smart factory. This paper describes the challenges for production and the technologies proposed by Industrie 4.0 to meet these challenges. It presents the fully automated Industrie 4.0 learning factory and the education within this production facility as problem-based lab work and project-based courses.