Automation of Mobile Machines

Course content

With regard to environmental sustainability students are – able to name the global challenges on environmental sustainability and describe the levers of product and process engineering on those impacts based on the IPAT equation. Furthermore, the students can reflect on each of the terms of the equation and their complex interactions – able to explain the concepts of relative and absolute sustainability. In this regard, the students are able to describe the concept of planetary boundaries regarding the earth’s carrying capacity. The students are furthermore able to reflect on the challenges related to the allocation of safe operating spaces. – able to describe different environmental impact categories including the impact pathway of the emissions causing this impact and name their end-point indicators. – able to apply systems thinking to critically analyze on the life cycle of technical products and processes. – able to critically reflect on the influence exerted by the surrounding background systems to a technology with regard to its environmental impact. – able to describe the scope and fields of action of Life Cycle Engineering (LCE). – are able to name methods and tools in LCE, from qualitative to quantitative approaches, and are able to discuss their application potentials within engineering activities. – able to explain the core life cycle assessment (LCA) method, including key terms (e.g. environmental impact, functional unit, system boundary). Furthermore, the students are able to understand the challenges of LCA-based Life Cycle Engineering and can name strategies to address those challenges. With regard to social sustainability students are – able to identify how local and global inequalities are inscribed in engineering practices and understand the social impact of engineering products on the basis of fundamental concepts of inequality (e.g. subjective, structural and symbolic dimensions of inequality, intersectionality and diversity, gender studies). – aware of the mutual influence society, engineering and scientific knowledge production have on each other and can explain basic approaches and concepts of social and cultural studies of technology (SST, SCOT, ANT etc.), which theoretically grasp this relation of mutual construction. Furthermore, they can apply these concepts to different fields of engineering and technological products. – able to identify social actors/stakeholders who are involved in engineering practices, overseen, affected by their outcomes or intended to use the respective product of these practices in the future. They know suitable methods (e.g. PD, VSD, OD) to communicate and work with these social actors/stakeholders and can employ them in different contexts. – able to recognize and analyze conflicts of interests and dilemma situations in engineering processes, which might result from taking into account a) marginalized, vulnerable or so far overseen social actors/stakeholders, b) different dimensions of sustainability (e.g. social, economic, ecological) or c) ethical considerations. – able to reflect on their own perspectives, interests and responsibilities as future engineers, in order to make conscious and socially responsible design decisions.

I. Introduction Global environmental and social sustainability challenges in the context of product and process engineering o I = Impact o P = Population o A = Affluence o T = Technology o Lecture’s Framework II. Social Sustainability Social and cultural studies of technology: basic approaches in the context of sustainable engineering Concepts and theories of inequality and power in the context of sustainable engineering Methods and techniques of critical design Approaches to critical analysis & design III. Environmental sustainability Relative environmental sustainability o Weak perspective of sustainability and Triple Bottom Line o Efficiency and effectiveness Absolute environmental sustainability o Strong perspective of sustainability o Earth’s carrying capacity Planetary boundaries o Safe Operating space o Operationalization challenges Assessment of Environmental Impacts (I) o Areas of Protection o Endpoint indicators Assessment of Environmental Impacts (II) o Midpoint indicators III. Life Cycle Engineering Systems and Life Cycle Thinking for sustainable engineering o Foreground system o Background system Methods and Tools in Life Cycle Engineering o Decision making in sustainable engineering o LCE framework and fields of action o Methods and tools in Life Cycle Engineering, e.g. Eco-design, Design for X LCA-based Life Cycle Engineering o Life Cycle Assessment o LCA-based Life Cycle Engineering – method and challenges, e.g. data acquisition, variabilities resulting from technical parameters o Interpretation and visualization for engineering applications and decision-making

The module extends over two semesters, this is part 1.