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Opto mechatronics in Eindhoven is top notch

Mechatronics courses - Testimonial Technical University Denmark
Eight years ago, DSPE started a certification program for training programs in the field of precision engineering. Three years ago, Nikola Vasiljevic was the first to meet the requirements of a bronze certificate. The mechatronics courses he took during his promotion had a great effect on his career.

In 2011, the Dutch Society for Precision Engineering (DSPE) took the initiative for a certification program for postgraduate education. The aim was to strengthen the offer by certifying training courses in precision engineering. The initiative arose when two years earlier, the Philips Centre for Technical Training was discontinued and the educational programs fragmented, partially disappearing. The Dutch high-tech sector could not afford such a loss, according to the industry organization.


Nikola Vasiljevic did his PhD research at the Technical University of Denmark. He designed, developed and tested a mobile, long-distance infrastructure for atmospheric and wind energy research.

DSPE decided to map out the entire range and monitor its quality by setting up a certification program. Candidates can attend certified training courses, for which they earn points (approximately one point per course day). A total of 45 points would yield the title of Certified Precision Engineer (CPE). This was later split into a bronze certificate for 25 points, silver for 35 points and gold for all 45 points.

In 2016, Nikola Vasiljevic was the first to reach the bronze level. The Serbian researcher obtained a PhD at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) in the Department of Wind Energy. He designed, developed and tested a mobile, long-distance infrastructure for atmospheric and wind-energy research. His system, known as the Wind scanner, is based on multiple scanning wind lidars used to map the wind flow.

Vasiljevic’s background lies in electrical engineering and computer science. For his PhD project he was looking for a good course that would provide fundamental and practical knowledge about motion control tuning. He felt he lacked knowledge about a number of the practical aspects of his work. By chance, he got to know the mechatronics courses of High Tech Institute.

Travelling to Eindhoven was a long shot

High Tech Institute offers the vast majority of CPE-certified courses. Vasiljevic’s main reason for joining his first course was the way the subject was presented. “For opto mechatronics, there is a lot of literature available, but it is difficult to use it in practice,” he says. “Most of the courses I have taken now have focused on the practical aspects of designing complex opto mechatronics devices. That’s how I always learn, ie by building things and understanding them in practice. For more detailed knowledge I read books and professional literature.”

Because he knew the position of the Eindhoven region in the high-tech industry, Vasiljevic took the gamble and enrolled for the first course at High Tech Institute. “Opto mechatronics in Eindhoven is top notch compared to the rest of the world. Many of my electrical engineering friends from the University of Belgrade came to Eindhoven to obtain a PhD or to work at Philips,” explains Vasiljevic. He thinks the high-tech industry in Eindhoven is very healthy. “You don’t often see such a degree of exchange between different companies. People regularly move between companies within the region, thus contributing to the exchange of knowledge. Despite the competition, there is also a certain degree of openness.”

Balanced

Motion control tuning, the first course Vasiljevic took, was a great experience. “I was amazed at the knowledge I gained in those six days. The course was a balanced mix of theoretical and practical aspects of motion control tuning. That is what led me to go further and look at other courses, such as Advanced motion control tuning,” he describes.

After that first course, Vasiljevic followed a number of additional mechatronics courses. “There were other mechatronics courses that appealed to me, such as Experimental techniques in motion control tuning and Metrology and calibration of mechatronic systems. My background is in measurement techniques, the development of wind sensors and metrology, so almost the entire curriculum applied to my subject,” Vasiljevic highlights.

Check all Mechatronics courses

At his own university in Denmark, Vasiljevic would probably have had to take a full semester course to acquire the necessary knowledge. Moreover, he feels that the practical aspects cannot be taught by ordinary academic professors. “The teachers at High Tech Institute have years of experience in the industry. They have built up practical knowledge, supported by theory.” DTU required Vasiljevic to earn points for the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS). “I could use the CPE courses for that.”

The next course Vasiljevic took was the Opto-Mechatronics Summer School. He had just received a grant from the Marie Curie scholarship which offered sufficient funding for five additional courses, covering nearly all the remaining subjects of opto mechatronics, with the exception of software development.

Knowledge and networking

After his promotion, Vasiljevic hoped to create a second generation of the long-distance Wind scanner system. Unfortunately, that did not happen. Nevertheless, the courses have yielded him a lot. Especially in the networking part of the courses. “I became friends with Adrian Rankers and Pieter Nuij, both teachers at High Tech Institute. We keep in touch on a regular basis.”


Vasiljevic about his first training at High Tech Institute: “I was amazed at the knowledge I gained in those six days.”

In total, the investment was comparable to what you would need for an MBA degree. “It’s a fine testament to your abilities.” That being said, Vasiljevic thinks he has not yet managed to make full use of the knowledge he has gained because he has not created the second generation of his tool. “Still, I’ve improved the device with all the knowledge I’ve gained.”

After his promotion Vasiljevic considered looking for a job in Eindhoven, but in the end, he didn’t find a good match. “HR departments like to have standardized people who come to work in their company. Because I do things differently, from software development and optics to control and data science, far beyond the role of a narrow specialist or a system architect, it is difficult to label me and place me in pre-defined business templates,” illustrates Vasilijevic.

'That's why I think researchers today are more capable and better able to adapt than preformed R&D engineers, who are favored by HR managers.'

Currently, Vasiljevic is still working in the research world. “Being part of a research environment, especially in the field of technology and engineering, requires that you constantly build up new skills and knowledge because it is the only way to survive in a landscape where funding is scarce,” depicts Vasiljevic. “That’s why I think researchers today are more capable and better able to adapt than preformed R&D engineers, who are favored by HR managers.”

European expansion

Vasiljevic finds it difficult to identify a single aspect of CPE certification that is most valuable to him. “I’d say, it’s a mix of everything. Practical knowledge, which is a good basis for continuing to learn. Working in groups of up to twenty people and getting to know the teacher. Networking between colleagues.”

He is convinced that the ECTS credits he received from his CPE training have influenced his career in an extremely positive way. “I’m about to become a senior researcher. Also, in the Wind Energy department, I am considered an optomechatronic and the go-to person for problems with movement systems.”

Looking ahead, Vasiljevic wants to use his experience in opto mechatronics in such a way that one day he will take on a role as system architect and designer of new and exciting opto mechatronics. My main concern is that if I don’t use the knowledge I have gained, it will eventually evaporate,” he expresses. “Maybe one day I will work in Eindhoven, in the heart of the high-tech industry.”

The CPE certification program is currently being extended to the European level. Together with Euspen, the European equivalent of DSPE, some courses from other European countries are now also certified.

This article is written by Jessica Vermeer, tech editor of High-Tech Systems.

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After completing the Motion Control Tuning training, you can achieve optimal motion control performance in minutes

motion control tuning interview met trainer en studenten
Academics who are experts in control theory often have difficulty in designing a controller for industrial practice. On the other hand, many mechatronics professionals who come into contact with control technology lack the theoretical basis to bring their systems to optimum performance. The Motion Control Tuning training offers a solution for both target groups. “Once you’ve gone all the way through it, you can design a perfect control system yourself in just a few minutes,” says course leader Tom Oomen.

How do you ensure that a probe microscope scans a sample in the right way with its nanodial needle? How can a pick and place machine put parts on a circuit board in a flash while still achieving super precision? How can a litho scanner project chip patterns at high speed and just the right position on a silicon wafer? It’s all about control engineering, about motion control.

It’s this knowledge that’s in the DNA of the Brainport region. Motion control is at the heart of accuracy and high performance. The success of Dutch high tech is partly due to the control technology knowledge built up around the city of Eindhoven in the Netherlands.

Technological developments at the Philips divisions Natlab and Centrum voor Fabricagetechnologie (CFT) made an important contribution to the development of the control technology field in the eighties and nineties. Time and time again, however, there was a hurdle to be overcome. When engineers in the product divisions started working with it, it was not so easy to convert the technology and theoretical principles that had been developed into industrial systems.


Students work with a very simple two-mass-spring-damper system.

Training courses Advanced Motion Control and Advanced Feedforward & Learning Control

That is why Philips realised in the 1990s that it had to transfer its knowledge effectively. This resulted in a course structure with a very practical approach. The short training courses of at least three days are intensive, but when participants return to work, they can apply the knowledge immediately.

Motion Control Tuning (MCT) was one of the first control courses set up at Philips CFT in the 1990s by Maarten Steinbuch, currently professor at Eindhoven University of Technology. Today, Mechatronics Academy develops and maintains the MCT training and markets it in collaboration with High Tech Institute, together with the Advanced Motion Control and Advanced Feedforward & Learning Control training courses.

MCT trainer Tom Oomen

Tom Oomen, associate professor at Steinbuch’s section Control Systems Technology of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology, is one of the driving forces behind these three courses. “The field is developing rapidly,” says Oomen, “which means a lot of theory, but the basis, for example how to program a PID controller, has remained the same.”

The Motion Control Tuning (MCT) training provides engineers with a solid basis. Participants are often developers with a thorough knowledge of control theory who want to apply their knowledge in practice but encounter practical obstacles. The surprising thing is that each edition always is joined by a number of international participants. It says a lot about how the world views the Dutch expertise in this field.

Check out the training

Motion control training students can roughly be divided into two groups. The first are people with insufficient technical background in control technology, who do have to deal with control technology on a daily basis. They want to learn the basics in order to be able to communicate better with their colleagues. “These people do design controllers, but don’t understand the techniques behind them. They make models for a controller, without knowing exactly what a controller can do. This causes communication problems between system designers and control engineers,” says Oomen.

Control engineers traditionally design a good controller on the basis of pictures, the so-called Bode and Nyquist-diagrams. “For seasoned control engineers, those diagrams are a piece of cake, but if you’ve never learned to read those figures, it’s still abracadabra. Then you can turn the knobs any way you want, but you’ll never design a good controller”, says Oomen.

Motion Control Tuning features twenty trainers

The best way to teach the essence of the profession to people with insufficient theoretical backgrounds, according to TNO’s Gert Witvoet, is to drag them all the way through it once. Witvoet, who also serves as a part-time assistant professor at Eindhoven University of Technology, is one of the twenty trainers and supervisors involved in the MCT training. “They have to learn how to read such diagrams. They need to understand exactly what they mean. With this training you really learn how control engineers in the industry design controllers, and what the possibilities and limitations of feedback are,” says Witvoet.

The other target group consists of engineers who are theoretically prepared. They are trained in theoretical control technology and have a good background, including knowledge of the underlying mathematics. Most of them are international participants, who come to the Netherlands especially for the motion control training. “These people have moved from academia to industry but have often never designed a controller for an industrial system. They are unable to achieve a good performance with modern tools, and the ability to tune classic PID controllers is often lacking,’ says Oomen. Witvoet: “In our course they will learn the real industry practice: how to handle a motion system and come to a good design step by step.”

Tom Oomen says that he looks with ‘theorical glasses’. Witvoet is more the applications guy. Both of them think it’s cool to teach engineers how to put the knowledge from state-of-the-art research transfer it into practice.

The academic world and industry work in very different ways, although their starting point is the same: a model. Researchers and engineers, however, each choose a different approach. Academics often use physical models including underlying mathematics, differential equations and the like. But in practice, engineers work with so-called non-parametric models such as frequency response functions. “This is very different from what we work with in the scientific world and we will work with it in the training”, says Oomen.


Tom Oomen.

MCT training part one is feedback design

Motion control tuning students get started with frequency response functions on the first day. They are quick and easy to obtain and are a means to reach the goal: to design a feedback controller. They measure the properties and characteristics of an existing mechatronic system. “A frequency response function follows from these measurements, which shows how the machine behaves,” says Oomen. “Then a model rolls out, which allows you to design a controller for that system.”

In contrast to these rapidly acquired and highly accurate frequency response models, many techniques from academia build a parametric model. For that they need detailed information on masses, springs, stiffness, dampers and so on. In practice, this is far too time-consuming. It is difficult to know all the parameters exactly.

But if you have an existing system, a frequency response is a good alternative. “You offer a suitable signal and simply measure how the system reacts,” says Witvoet. “This way you get a super good frequency response function of the input-output behaviour in just a few minutes, which allows you to design a good controller. If you then also know how to tune such a thing, you can make the best controller for your system, step by step, within a few minutes.”

Students in MCT training use a simple, practical system

Students get started with a very simple two-mass-spring-damper system. One mass is connected directly to the motor, the second mass (the load) is connected to the first mass. The system has position sensors at the motor, as well as at the load. The challenge is to design a controller that controls the second mass accurately. Not easy, because the shaft is torsional.

Oomen: “In practice, systems always measure the load. Just look at a printer. Somewhere there is a motor that moves the carriage via a drive belt. Because you want to know exactly where the ink is on the paper, you measure the position of the carriage. When you measure on the engine, you never know for sure, because the transmission between the engine and the print head is flexible.”

Gert Witvoet.

Even seasoned researchers in the control technology sometimes have trouble understanding the stubborn practice. In their experience, everything can be modelled in detail, including the transmission between engine and load. During visits to top international groups, Oomen regularly shows the experimental set-up from the motion control tuning training to theorists. “I then ask them if it makes any difference where I measure, at the motor or the load. Starting from theoretical concepts like controllability and observability, they usually answer that it doesn’t matter”.

In the MCT course, however, the trainers show that it is essential where you measure. “If you measure over the motor, then the sky is the limit in terms of performance. Everything is possible. Malfunctions can be suppressed up to any frequency. But if you measure – as always in practice – over the load, then you are very limited, because you have to deal with unpredictable behavior due to flexible parts. Then there are significant limitations for control loops and the performance that you can actually achieve. If you want to make a stabilizing regulator under these conditions, you have to be very careful. It’s easy to get unstable behavior. If you want to know exactly what that’s like, you have to come to the course,” laughs Oomen.

Henry Nyquist and Hendrik Bode

To give a motion controller stability, classic concepts are necessary. These were devised by Henry Nyquist and Hendrik Bode. Oomen: “In the first half of the last century, Nyquist already devised principles to guarantee the stability of such a control loop. I recently read a book from 1947 in which he described this. We still use this on a daily basis, in combination with those frequency response functions. Both are deeply interwoven. In this way we guarantee the stability of control loops.”

Mention the name Nyquist, and you’re also talking about Fourier and Laplace transformations. It might sound complicated but working with mathematics in practice doesn’t require a deep understanding. “We explain these concepts in a very intuitive way that is accessible to everyone,” says Oomen. “The role of these concepts in control design forms the basis and is encountered by control engineers in their work anyway. We think it’s important that people really know it, but it’s really not necessary to go deep into mathematics for that.”

After the basic concepts, the training makes the step to stability. Witvoet: “They learn to lay a good foundation with a picture, a Nyquist diagram. This allows students to test the stability of their system. All mysticism is then gone, because they know what’s underneath and how to use it. Students will then be able to turn the knobs and check whether the closed control loop is stable.”

This is followed by the step to an actual design. The first requirement of such a design may be stability, but in the end, it is all about performance. To achieve this, students are given a wide range of motion control tools such as notch, lead, lag filters and PID controllers. “It’s all in the engineer’s toolbox and it’s the prelude to one of the most appreciated afternoons of the course – the loop-shaping game. In this game, students will tune the controller as well as possible and squeeze out the performance. If they can do that, they’ll have mastered how a feedback controller works.”

MCT training part two is feedforward controller design

In addition to the feedback controller for stability and interference suppression, each motion system also has a feedforward controller. This tells the system how to follow its path from a to b. This is also called reference tracking. “You control that with the feedforward controller,” says Oomen. “The most important part of the system’s performance comes from the feedforward control. Here, too, we briefly go into the theory and then immediately start experimenting. It is a very systematic and intuitive approach. Once you’ve done it, you can apply it immediately.”

By actually applying it, participants in the MCT training learn how things like mass feedforward and capture feedforward work. “It’s a very systematic approach that allows you to tune the parameters one by one in an optimal way,” says Oomen. “If you master that technique, you can tune the best feedforward controller for your system in just a few minutes, by doing iterative experiments.

'Once you have experienced this, you can almost get optimal performance out of the system within a few minutes.'

Once you know how to measure a frequency response function and design a feedback and feedforward control, you can design controllers very quickly. Oomen: “Time is money, of course, and that’s why the entire Dutch high-tech industry does it this way. You can find it in Venlo at Canon Printing Systems and in Best at Philips Healthcare. The smaller mechatronic companies also use these techniques. At ASML in Veldhoven, almost all motion controllers in wafer scanners are tuned in this way. Once you are a little experienced, you can almost get the optimal performance out of the system. That’s within a few minutes and, of course, that’s cool.”

MCT training is 100 percent practice

When asked about the relationship between theory and practice, Oomen laughingly says that the MCT training is “100 percent practice”. “All the theory we do is essential to practice,” adds Witvoet. “We explain a number of theoretical concepts, but we do so by means of an application. It’s all about tuning. It’s really a design course and gradually one learns some theory. Every afternoon we work on that system, making frequency response functions and then fine tuning. Feedforward, feedback, it’s a daily job getting your hands dirty and your feet in the mud, because you apply the theory right away.”

'The Motion Control Tuning training is 100 percent practice, every day with your feet in the mud.'

After five days, participants will be able to develop a feedback and feedforward controller independently. In the final day various trainers and experts discuss the developments within their field of expertise.

Oomen: “Within the five days, participants succeed in making controllers with one input and one output, but many industrial systems have multiple inputs and outputs. That seems to have consequences for tuning.” Witvoet: “We show where the dangers lie. When things can go wrong and when things go wrong, how to deal with them.”

To design control systems for multiple inputs and outputs, motion control engineers need a stronger theoretical basis. This knowledge of multivariable systems is discussed in the five-day Advanced Motion Control training course. “In this course, participants will learn in great detail how to make control systems with multiple inputs and outputs”, says Oomen, “We will follow the same philosophy and reasoning as in the Motion Control Tuning training”.

On the last day, learning from data is also discussed, a trend that is currently growing rapidly within the control area. “The latest generations of control systems can learn from past mistakes and at the same time correct them,” says Oomen. “In doing so, we use large amounts of data produced by sensors in machines. This enables us to correct machine faults within a few iterations. This paves the way for new revolutionary machine designs that are lightweight, more accurate, less expensive and more versatile, but also allow existing machines to be upgraded in this way. On the last day of MCT, I’ll tell you about it for an hour, but in the Advanced Feedforward Control training course, we’ll take three days to do it.”

This article is written by René Raaijmakers, tech editor of High-Tech Systems.

Recommendation by former participants

By the end of the training participants are asked to fill out an evaluation form. To the question: 'Would you recommend this training to others?' they responded with a 9.2 out of 10.

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If you already know everything, how will you ever learn something new?

Design patterns training - Testimonial Thermo Fisher Scientific
In the midst of a tight Dutch labor market, companies are working harder than ever to keep and attract new talent. Thermo Fisher software manager Reinier Perquin believes that providing his employees with training opportunities not only helps bring in new personnel, but it also keeps his people fresh. He organized the ‘Design patterns and emergent architecture‘ training for his team.

Thermo Fisher Scientific, a multinational leader in biotechnology product development, employs more than 70,000 people around the world. But how does a company, with such a large global footprint, manage to keep its workers and continually draw in new employees? According to the software group manager from Thermo Fisher’s Eindhoven offices, Reinier Perquin, the main attraction for engineers is the opportunity to work on cutting-edge projects. An example: using advanced software to help solve the problem of global diseases. To get these talented engineers on board, Perquin says investment in training – both technical and social – is a valuable tool.

'Training budgets are increasingly important to attracting prospective colleagues.'

As a manager within the Thermo Fisher R&D department in Eindhoven, Perquin is routinely interviewing to bring new faces to the software group. What he’s noticed in these meetings: training budgets are increasingly important to attracting prospective colleagues. “In some interviews, it’s one of the first questions that people will ask. We’re seeing that more and more. While we don’t offer individual training budgets, we understand how important it can be, so we have a group budget specifically to encourage our employees to utilize training opportunities,” explains Perquin.


Photo by Vincent van den Hoogen.

Do you prefer internal or external training?

“We offer both to our employees but getting an outside view can be very helpful and that’s why we encourage external training. Our workers can gain new insights and learn about emerging technologies and cutting-edge methods. In my department, we’re seeing that the whole architecture of software is evolving before our eyes. Before, it was closed off but now you see things happening in the cloud or edge computing. That happens because new technology enables that. In software, you must constantly learn and adjust. So, if you don’t invest in yourself, then, in the end, you stand still. These trainings are a great method to enhance skills and learn about novel solutions.”
The ‘Design patterns and emergent architecture’ training took place in-company.

What’s the greatest benefit of offering your employees training?

“Well, first of all, people are really busy with their day-to-day tasks. Sometimes it’s good to step outside and take a break from thinking only about your work. It gives people the opportunity to not only get a break from their daily challenges but to focus on enhancing their personal skill set,” describes Perquin. “Also, it gives our engineers the opportunity to meet people from other companies and build a social and professional network. If people sit still too long without training – especially externally – they start to think in certain ways within their comfort zones. For some problems, you need to think outside of the box – not in absolutes like, ‘We’ve always done it like this, so we’ll continue to do this like this’. That’s the wrong mentality. Trainings help to disrupt this way of thinking.”

Go to Design Patterns training
What type of courses are your workers choosing?

“Being in software, we often see our employees opting for training in design patterns in emergent architecture, taught by Onno van Roosmalen at High Tech Institute. In software, you see a repetition of certain patterns. By giving these patterns common names, essentially creating a unified software language, our engineers can better communicate and solve problems. Onno and I have a long history, going back to university, so I know the level of the knowledge that’s being taught and that training is easy to approve for our employees.”

Are there any other trainings you utilize?

“To be honest, we probably spend most of our budget on the soft-skills training – probably more than the technical trainings. Sometimes when people come straight from university, they tend to think that they know everything. Technically, these people can be very strong but often their soft skills are their weakest spot. Everyone wants to believe they’re system architects but I always say, an architect is not a technical person. In that situation, soft skills are more important than the whole technical level. If you already know everything, how will you ever learn something new? Sometimes they don’t realize it and they need time for reflection. That’s something the soft-skills training is incredibly helpful with.”

Check out the soft skills courses
Do you notice a return on your investment? Does it help output? 

“Absolutely. I don’t see it as we’re losing three days of work; I see it as a worthwhile investment, both for the company and for the individual. I believe it helps in terms of productivity, especially the soft skills. We see very positive changes because people realize that if they want to achieve something, they may need to adopt a different approach. We see that trainees come back communicating ideas more clearly and working better with people and it makes them a far more effective employee. We find that our colleagues come back with new ideas, new energy and new inspiration. It keeps people fresh.”

This article is written by Collin Arocho, tech editor of Bits&Chips.

Recommendation by former participants

By the end of the training participants are asked to fill out an evaluation form. To the question: 'Would you recommend this training to others?' they responded with a 8.5 out of 10.

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Free evening workshop 28 November: Dutch high tech work culture

How to be successful in the Dutch high tech work culture

Holland Expat Center South organizes the workshop ‘Dutch high tech work culture’ in the evening of 28 November 2019 at Holiday Inn Eindhoven. Trainer Jaco Friedrich will talk about the do’s and don’ts of working in Dutch High Tech Culture. There is no charge to attend, but registration is required.

This evening workshop is related to High Tech Institute’s training ‘How to be successful in the Dutch high tech work culture’, intended for non-Dutch technology professionals who are working with Dutch colleagues in the Netherlands or abroad.

Program 28 November 2019:
17.45 – 18.00 Doors open;
18.00 – 19.30 Do’s and Don’ts of… – Jaco Friedrich;
19.30 – 20.00 Drinks & Snacks.

Location: Holiday Inn Hotel Eindhoven

Registration: Register here.

If you want to attend the full workshop, please have a look at the online course description.

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Trainer Ernõ Jeges receives a monster score of 9.3 for his in-company edition of ‘Secure coding in C and C++’

Ten participants at the recent edition of the course ‘Secure coding in C and C++’ rewarded trainer Ernõ Jeges with an average score of 9.7 out of 10 for his training. When asked, ‘How likely is it that you would recommend the training to others?’ participants responded with a 9.3 (out of 10). Jeges ran the training recently a part of an in-company training at a Belgian tech company.

‘This was really impressive! With a few lines of code, the theory was put into reality’, was one participant’s feedback. Other remarks were: ‘Very interesting.’ ‘You can feel the trainer’s passion for the topic.’

For software security trainings, High Tech Institute has an exclusive partnership with Cydrill, a Hungarian Institute that specializes in this field. Security for embedded systems is one of Cydrills specialities. Cydrill’s goal is not to educate people about hacking but to develop paranoia. The focus of the secure software training is to help participants cultivate new coding habits for secure encryption that do not require extra time or effort.

High Tech Institute organizes this training twice a year.