The 5h Delta Advanced Automation Design Contest has just been held at Delta's Wujiang Plant in Jiangsu, China, from July 23-26. A total of 76 teams from 73 colleges and universities in China, Taiwan, Thailand, India, and Vietnam earned a place in the final contest. After two days of fierce competition, the winners of the “Special Award”, the highest honor, went to:
• Shanghai Jiao Tong University “Team Magic Control” (China) which built an Intelligent Container Terminal Logistics System
• Xiamen University “Team Gemini” (China) which applied a high-speed Parallel Manipulator with machine vision to sorting objects
The 5th Delta Advanced Automation Design Contest adopted the concept of advanced industrial automation development from “Industry 4.0” and “Made in China 2025”. Under the theme of “Seeking Smart Manufacturing Talents”, the competition included three major categories: “smart machines”, “smart robots”, and “smart manufacturing”. This year, the 76 teams that earned a place in the final contest included 61 teams from China, 7 from Taiwan, 3 from Thailand, 3 from India, and 2 from the newly participating Vietnam, which elevated the competition to becoming more international in scope. Aside from the Special Awards, the First Prize, Second Prize, Third Prize and Editor's Awards were also presented among the other 72 teams at the award ceremony on July 26. (Please go to http://mkt.deltagreentech.com.cn/2018/jingsai/winnerslist.asp for detailed information.)
At the ceremony, Mr. Bruce Cheng, the founder and Honorary Chairman of Delta Electronics, Inc. said, “Automation plays a key role in helping industry's transformation to smart manufacturing. The Delta Cup Advanced Automation Design Contest has come to its 5th anniversary, as it actively builds a platform for teachers and students from both domestic and overseas schools to share their teaching and technology experiences. We hope that students of automation will enhance their skills and creativity through acquiring new knowledge and exploring their individual visions, and ultimately help the trend of industrial transformation.”
Shao Yuan Lee, Vice Chairman of the Chinese Association of Automation, also said at the opening ceremony, “Today the manufacturing industry is facing a rapid change as traditional production and operations suffer a great impact. To echo this change, Industry 4.0, China 2025, and many American advanced manufacturing industries will continue to lead the Chinese manufacturing industries to transform and head toward smart manufacturing as technical professionals play a key role. In recent years, the Ministry of Education has focused on reforming the teaching of occupational education, and engaging in college-industry cooperation to achieve the synchronized teaching of up-to-date knowledge with industry. This is the reason Delta has organized the Delta Cup Contests over the past years, as well as developed many college-industry cooperation projects. We have found many innovative and applicable concepts through the Delta Cup event. Participating students also gain a lot by enhancing their skills for job positions in the future, becoming the smart manufacturing talents that will transform the industry.”
Smart Manufacturing Talents Reveal New Concepts to the World
During the 4-day final contest, contestants needed to pass two stages including a team competition and a championship contest followed by a proposal introduction, a demo kit display, and a Q&A session directly with the judges. At the team competition, all 76 contestants presented their ideas and demonstrated their demo kits' functions and features to all the judges. Finally, after thorough review, 15 teams out of the 76 were chosen to compete at the championship contest, where they must conduct a project presentation, an on-site demo, and a Q&A session.
At the event, the projects of many teams revealed creative and outstanding concepts. Highlighted projects include:
Shanghai Jiao Tong University “Team Magic Control”: Intelligent Container Terminal Logistics System (Grand Prize)
This intelligent container terminal logistics system is designed to simulate and optimizes the transport process of a terminal. This system includes three collaborative optimization control units: AGV, terminal gantry crane and terminal bridge crane. In this system, the team adopts IoT and cloud platform technology to develop an intelligent optimal scheduling strategy, which can significantly increase the container transport efficiency, reduce the storage and labor costs and lower the accident rate caused by human factors.
Xiamen University ”Team Gemini”: Delta Gemini (Grand Prize)
Delta Gemini applied the high-speed Parallel Manipulator with machine vision for sorting objects, which can be divided into two parts: Picker Pollux and Master Castor. Picker can find the object to be picked by template matching based on a shape model. After getting the coordinates and degrees, the system converts this data to the controller, letting the parallel manipulator grab the object accurately. The system can clone real movement, virtual simulation, performance evaluation and virtual dismounting. These practical functions help enhance working efficiency and bring great convenience to users.
National Yunlin University of Science and Technology “Team Assault Transport Ship”: Mini Classified Conveyor (First Prize)
This solution utilizes Delta Machine Vision Systems to identify the QR codes on the boxes. It can automatically determine types of goods on the conveyor, and send them to different delivery lanes. This flexible, automated logistics sorting solution can handle multiple orders on one single production line.
Chulalongkorn University ”Team CU Soon”: Automatic DIY Fruit Frappe Vending Machine (First Prize)
This solution is a smart customized fruit frappe demonstration machine, which uses a face recognition system that can detect and recognize customers to identify their orders and their favorite drinks. In addition, this machine adopts an alarm system: when cups or beverages are nearly out of stock, it will send out alarm messages to the manager for restock. In addition, the machine supports QR code payment for the customer's convenience.
India R.V. College of Engineering ”Team Clone Tribe”: Smart 3D Scan-to-print Machine (First Prize)
This 3D scanning & printing solution utilizes laser displacement sensors for the scanning process, and can easily complete the scanning of objects within maximum outer diameter within 600mm and height within 700mm. It also features user-friendly interfaces and easy maintenance, and can be applied to any offices without requiring special expertise or dedicated personnel. The structure of printer is made of aluminium T-slot, and adopts biodegradable material, PLA (poly lactic acid) of diameter 0.75mm, to achieve good 3D printing quality and eco-friendliness.
Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City ”Team Tiger”: Smart Automated Parking Garage System (Editor's Choice of Best Decoration Prize)
The smart automated parking garage solution is a system that can correctly and automaticlly store and move out automobiles. Customers can make an online reservation on the website, and the system will help customers easily find parking spaces. To reclaim their automobiles, customers serve themselves by entering their password and car number on the HMI. The system will then identify the car number and locate its parking spot by image processing.
Enriching College-Industry Cooperation and Nurturing Future Talents
During the final contest, Delta organized a variety of activities and keynote speeches, including a tour of a smart demonstration line and laboratories at the Delta Wujiang Plant, a teachers' seminar for experience sharing, and an employment forum. Through these activities, Delta hoped to create opportunities for more interaction between colleges and industry, and information exchanges between teammates as well as other contestants, for a positive influence on future talent cultivation and development.
Bo Yan Ju, one of the team members from National Kaohsiung First University of Science and Technology, said, “This career forum invited engineers of the industry to share their Delta experience. This has helped me greatly to thoroughly understand the development and industrial chain of Delta's products. I appreciate the experience sharing platform that the Delta Cup offered. This opportunity will help me face the challenges of the future by continuing to enrich my professional knowledge and capabilities.”
As a world-class industrial automation brand, Delta improves industrial technology while sharing its experience and techniques with talented students and academics through academia-industrial cooperation. Since 2008, Delta has launched academia-industrial cooperation projects with dozens of colleges and universities in Taiwan and China. Delta has donated automation products, built a “Delta Laboratory”, and more. Delta also plans to extend this project to other Asian countries such as Thailand and India, hoping to cultivate and find more talent for its “Automation for a Changing World”.