Open Access

Global climate change is a cognitive challenge for many people and often evokes negative associations due to its complexity and interactions with politics, social movements and economic developments. Therefore, the possession of green skills becomes central to the fight against climate change. The European Council conclusions recognize this urgency and underline the need for a transition to green skills. This recognition also extends to higher education, where institutions have a crucial role to play in tackling the climate crisis. Personal Green Skills in Higher Education (PeGSinHE) is an Erasmus+ KA2 project coordinated by Kauno Kolegija (KK, Lithuania), Tampere University of Applied Sciences (TAMK, Finland), Hochschule für Agrar- und Umweltpädagogik (HAUP, Austria), Universidad de Málaga (UMA, Spain) and Technical University of Applied Sciences Würzburg Schweinfurt (THWS, Germany). The strategically designed project aims not only to promote green skills among students and encourage personal behavioral change in line with the Sustainable Development Goals, but also to instill a sense of social responsibility in the partner institutions. The focus is on empowering lecturers at partner universities through innovative teaching and learning methods to effectively impart green skills to students. This report describes the objectives and methodology used to assess environmental and sustainability competencies in the higher education institutions involved in the project. Methodologically, the report uses an assessment template designed to provide a comprehensive overview of best practice and baseline levels of environmental and sustainability competencies. It advocates the involvement of key stakeholders from all five partner Higher Education Institutions to ensure a broad perspective on these practices and competences within their respective countries and organizations. Different methods and perspectives will be used to collect data to enable a holistic understanding of the topic. The joint completion of the assessment template serves as a catalyst for joint discussions on the level of environmental and sustainability competencies and the identification of best practices in each organization. The results show that national implementation strategies are relatively loose, although some competency descriptions set targets for undergraduate degree programs. Challenges faced by higher education staff include resource constraints, particularly lack of time, the need for a deeper understanding of sustainable development and pedagogical tools, and the need for improved opportunities for collaboration. Given the time and resource constraints of this study, the results must be considered preliminary. Nevertheless, they confirm the findings of previous studies.

High-temperature calibration methods in additive manufacturing involve the use of advanced techniques to accurately measure and control the temperature of the build material during the additive manufacturing process. Infrared cameras, blackbody radiation sources and non-linear optimization algorithms are used to correlate the temperature of the material with its emitted thermal radiation. This is essential for ensuring the quality and repeatability of the final product. This paper presents the calibration procedure of an imaging system for in-situ measurement of absolute temperatures and temperature gradients during powder bed fusion of metal with laser beam (PBF-LB/M) in the temperature range of 500 K–1500 K. It describes the design of the optical setup to meet specific requirements in this application area as well as the procedure for accounting the various factors influencing the temperature measurement. These include camera-specific effects such as varying spectral sensitivities of the individual pixels of the sensor as well as influences of the exposure time and the exposed sensor area. Furthermore, influences caused by the complex optical path, such as inhomogeneous transmission properties of the galvanometer scanner as well as angle-dependent transmission properties of the f-theta lens were considered. A two-step fitting algorithm based on Planck's law of radiation was applied to best represent the correlation. With the presented procedure the calibrated thermography system provides the ability to measure absolute temperatures under real process conditions with high accuracy.

Computerized Numeric Control (CNC) plays an essential role in highly autonomous manufacturing systems for interlinked process chains for machine tools. NC-programs are mostly written in standardized G-code. Evaluating CNC-controlled manufacturing processes before their real application is advantageous due to resource efficiency. One dimension is the estimation of the energy demand of a part manufactured by an NC-program, e.g. to discover optimization potentials. In this context, this paper presents a Machine Learning (ML) approach to assess G-code for CNC-milling processes from the perspective of the energy demand of basic G-commands. We propose Latin Hypercube Sampling as an efficient method of Design of Experiments to train the ML model with minimum experimental effort to avoid costly setup and implementation time of the model training and deployment.

Introduction: The negative consequences of climate change are widespread and have a global impact. An industrialized region of Germany must adapt to the effects of climate change and comply with political regulations. Previous studies indicate that economic actors who are not directly affected by climate change approach climate change mitigation and adaptation primarily based on legal requirements and often feel discouraged by the absence of data-based reports. Addressing this challenge, game-based learning emerges as a promising pathway. Methods: To examine game-based learning’s applicability and potential for climate adaptation, we developed a business simulation game, simultaneously identifying didactically effective elements for managers who would participate in it. Using expert interviews and focus groups, we conducted a qualitative study with three HR developers from larger companies and nine managers and founders of startups to develop a business simulation game on climate adaptation. Based on the Grounded Theory methodology, theoretical coding was used to analyze the qualitative data. Results: The derived core categories indicate that personnel development in companies is evolving in response to economic changes. Individual resources such as motivation (especially for managers), personnel and time play a crucial role in establishing a business game as an educational offering. The identified game elements can also be used theoretically and practically in the development of other educational games. Discussion: We discussed common human resource development measures in companies and compared them with more innovative approaches such as a simulation game. The study underscores the importance of innovative approaches, such as game-based learning, in fostering climate adaptation efforts among economic actors. By integrating theoretical insights with practical applications, our findings provide valuable guidance for the development of educational games aimed at addressing complex challenges like climate change. Further research and implementation of such approaches are essential for promoting proactive climate adaptation strategies within industrialized regions and beyond.

In nonlinear regression with machine learning methods, neural networks (NNs) are ideally suited due to their universal approximation property, which states that arbitrary nonlinear functions can thereby be approximated arbitrarily well. Unfortunately, this property also poses the problem that data points with measurement errors can be approximated too well and unknown parameter subspaces in the estimation can deviate far from the actual value (so-called overfitting). Various developed methods aim to reduce overfitting through modifications in several areas of the training. In this work, we pursue the question of how an NN behaves in training with respect to overfitting when linear and nonlinear transfer functions (TF) are alternated in different hidden layers (HL). The presented approach is applied to a generated dataset and contrasted to established methods from the literature, both individually and in combination. Comparable results are obtained, whereby the common use of purely nonlinear transfer functions proves to be not recommended generally.

Purpose of this paper: Surveys have shown that most companies still use paper-based lists or RF handhelds to support picker-to-parts order picking. However, more modern approaches such as replacing handhelds with small wearables, Pick-by-Voice, Pick-by-Vision, or even autonomous picking robots are on the rise. This fits into a broader trend commonly referred to as "smart logistics". However, what "smartness" means in this context remains unclear. This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of smartness in picker-to- parts order picking by applying socio-technical systems theory. Design/methodology/approach: The methodological approach uses a socio-technical analysis and a combination of two frameworks involving smart capabilities to identify the characteristics of "smart" picker- to-parts order picking. Findings: Typically, smartness is considered a property of the assistive devices used in order picking (such as smart glasses in Pick-by-Vision). Instead, smartness should be judged by the extent to which the picking system is implemented as a socio-technical system with comprehensive, meaningful tasks. Thus, smart picker-to-parts order picking is an alternative concept to the digital Tayloristic approach supported by the prevailing assistive devices. A number of elements are proposed for the design of a smart picking system, including establishing responsible autonomy, reducing cognitive load, improving ergonomics, and human-machine interaction based on contextual adaptation. Value: This paper contributes to the still relatively small body of literature on smart picker-to- parts order picking by clarifying the dimensions of smartness in this field. A clearer understanding of smartness is helpful in avoiding getting trapped in digital Tayloristic work patterns, mediated and controlled by the currently available tools. It also supports creating a more favorable work environment for warehouse personnel. Research limitations/implications: So far, the concept of smartness in picker-to-part order picking is purely conceptual. Practical implications: The evaluation framework can be used to critically assess the technology currently used in warehouses to support picker-to-parts order picking and to guide the development of new systems.

Forest management relies on the analysis of satellite imagery and time intensive physical on-site inspections. Both methods are costly and time consuming. Satellite based images are often not updated in a sufficient frequency to react to infestations or other occurring problems. Forest management benefits greatly from accurate and recent information about the local forest areas. In order to react appropriately and in time to incidents such as areas damaged by storms, areas infested by bark beetles and decaying ground water level, this information can be extracted from high resolution imagery. In this work, we propose UAVs to meet this demand and demonstrate that they are fully capable of gathering this information in a cost efficient way. Our work focuses on the cartography of trees to optimize forest-operation. We apply deep learning for image processing as a method to identify and isolate individual trees for GPS tagging and add some additional information such as height and diameter.

Highly autonomous production cells are a crucial part of manufacturing systems in industry 4.0 and can contribute to a sustainable value-adding process. To realize a high degree of autonomy in production cells with an industrial robot and a machine tool, an experimental approach was carried out to deal with numerous challenges on various automation levels. One crucial aspect is the scheduling problem of tasks for each resource (machine tool, tools, robot, AGV) depending on various data needed for a job-shop scheduling algorithm. The findings show that the necessary data has to be derived from different automation levels in a company: horizontally from ERP to shop-floor, vertically from the order handling department to the maintenance department. Utilizing that data, the contribution provides a cascaded scheduling approach for machine tool jobs as well as CNC and robot tasks for highly autonomous production cells supplied by AGVs.