Design for Robot Assembly: Challenges of online education

Over the past years, Industry 4.0 technologies and their integrations have provided new production automation forms, making product design very concerned with Design For Robot Assembly. From the educational perspective, this very practical topic is often taught in a lab environment where many resources can be used, demonstrated, and tested. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced many institutions to move the teaching activities from onsite to online, while accesses to laboratories became very limited. For theoretical learnings, this transition can be done without experiencing significant issues. However, for practical learnings, several challenges emerge. In this study, we present the transition process from onsite to online of a Design for Robot Assembly workshop and the adaptations to accomplish all practical learnings. The objective is to demonstrate a student-centred approach to learning that is adaptable for an online teaching context. An innovative method of designing and running an online workshop that does not require access to lab facilities is introduced. Furthermore, we summarize the challenges from workshop preparation to the post-workshop discussion. Based on these experiences, we provide suggestions and a guideline for best practices of running an online Design for Robot Assembly workshop, which can also be used for regular online teaching to promote a more practical experience.