You machine! Learning at KUKA

Guest article from the career magazine for high school students: absolut°karriere

The robot moves its arm with millimeter precision, slowly at first, then faster and faster. This is how Bernadette “Berni” Schlögl and Henry Wolz had shown the machine a few minutes earlier by hand. Now the two stand in front of the glass wall behind which the robot works almost silently, controlling the total of six axes via a device that looks a bit like an oversized tablet. As soon as the machine’s movements become faster, people are not allowed to be in the immediate vicinity. For safety reasons. That is why the orange robots, which are lined up in KUKA’s training center, are also each located in a so-called cell.

“Industry 4.0 was already a big topic at school. Here at KUKA, everything revolves around it,” Henry explains his motivation. He had already seen the robots in action during a plant tour of an automotive manufacturer and was immediately fascinated. “I wanted to know how these machines are built, how to program them.” That’s what he’s learning now. He processes mechanical components, installs and tests hardware and software, programs controls.

Above all, electrical engineering and mechanics characterize his dual composite studies. All of that has to do with robots, of course. With his studies, Henry has the chance to help shape the future. Especially in times of COVID-19, automation in Germany has received an enormous boost. Numerous companies in industry and manufacturing, but also hospitals, have reorganized their work processes and are relying more and more on support from robots. The fear that jobs will be lost as a result is unfounded. On the contrary. Studies show: More German employers than ever before (90 percent) are planning to expand their workforce in the context of automation or at least to maintain the number of their employees. Above all, workers who can handle robots will be in demand.

Computer science takes up a larger part of Henry’s studies than it does for Berni. “Especially at the beginning of my studies, I had a lot to do with the individual materials,” she says. She has swapped jeans for thicker work pants, put on safety shoes and tucked her long braid under a cap. When she steps up to the lathe, she also puts on safety goggles. In the apprentice workshop, the 40 new apprentices and dual network students are sawing and filing away at their first workpieces, a faint smell of metal in the air. “When I know how a material feels and behaves, I also understand the possible applications within the robot better,” says Berni as she clamps a component at the machine and presses a few buttons. She seems experienced – after all, she is already in her third year of training.

While robots are still rare in the domestic environment – apart from lawn mowers and vacuum cleaners – Germany is the European leader when it comes to installing industrial robots. More than 220,000 such automated machines are in use on the factory floors of Audi, BMW and Co. Neither Berni nor Henry know exactly where they want to work later. Opportunities abound – from development to project management, from industry to medicine. The time for robots has long since come. All that’s missing are the skilled workers to program and control them.