This research evaluates a novel, modular, open-source, and low-cost educational robotic platform in Educational Robotics and STEM Education. It is the sequel of an action research cycle on which the development of this robot is based. The impetus for the need to develop this came from the evaluation of qualitative and quantitative research data collected during an educational robotics event with significant participation of students in Athens, which showed an intense interest in students in participating in educational robotics activities, but—at the same time—recorded their low involvement due to the high cost of educational robots and robotic platforms. Based on the research’s findings, this robot was designed to suit the whole educational community; its specifications came from its members’ needs and the processing and analysis of qualitative and quantitative data. This paper presents an evaluation of the robot using the Technology Acceptance Model. The robot was exposed to 116 undergraduate students attending a pedagogical university department to evaluate its handling according to the model’s factors. Research results were promising and showed a high degree of acceptance of the robot by these students and future teachers, providing the impetus for further research.

All kinds of vessels consist of dozens of complex machineries with rotating parts and electric motors that operate continuously in harsh environments with excess temperature, humidity, vibration, fatigue, and load. A breakdown or malfunction in one of these machineries can significantly impact a vessel’s operation and safety and, consequently, the safety of the crew and the environment. To maintain operational efficiency and seaworthiness, the shipping industry invests substantial resources in preventive maintenance and repairs. This study presents the economic and technical benefits of predictive maintenance over traditional preventive maintenance and repair by replacement approaches in the maritime domain. By leveraging modern technology and artificial intelligence, we can analyze the operating conditions of machinery by obtaining measurements either from sensors permanently installed on the machinery or by utilizing portable measuring instruments. This facilitates the early identification of potential damage, thereby enabling efficient strategizing for future maintenance and repair endeavors. In this paper, we propose and develop a convolutional neural network that is fed with raw vibration measurements acquired in a laboratory environment from the ball bearings of a motor. Then, we investigate whether the proposed network can accurately detect the functional state of ball bearings and categorize any possible failures present, contributing to improved maintenance practices in the shipping industry.

As the pharmaceutical industry continues to evolve, the integration of Industry 4.0 technologies has emerged as a pivotal force in reshaping conventional practices, and as such it has a transformative impact on sustainable development in the pharmaceutical sector. This interdisciplinary literature review addresses the effects of Industry 4.0 on pharmaceutical industry’s workforce, safety concerns, and sustainable development efforts, together with challenges and benefits associated with the integration of advanced technologies in different countries. The employed research methodologies are qualitative, which incorporate PRISMA or Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses. This explanatory research consists of published data (articles, conference papers, books) explaining the adoption of the 4th Industry revolution by the pharmaceutical sector employing a qualitative methodology which incorporates PRISMA or Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses. By filtering out the published activity, an inflection point in the development of Industry 4.0 has been determined: the COVID-19 outbreak and the disruptions it brought to the supply chain of the pharmaceutical industry. A univariate bibliographic analysis focused in the meta-COVID-19 era, were the initial effects of Industry 5.0. Are taken into consideration, has been performed, revealing the relationship between the global health crisis and published activity by country. One of the most important outcomes is that local Governments’ policies and initiatives aiming to promote improved productivity, efficiency, and innovation are associated with published activity in the field.

Background: Sustainable design means to base design on any systems and methods that can fulfill any of the sustainability goals: reducing waste, recycling plastics, upcycle materials, etc., and having less of an impact on the environment. Therefore, a challenge arises: how to design products based on sustainable design. This research presents a case study, about how students in a university’s design department, used sustainability practices in their projects, to adopt sustainability as a major aspect during the design process of a product. Methods: The researchers used STEM methodologies to educate and guide the students to adopt recycling and upcycling practices to design and develop an educational mobile robot for Educational Robotics and Mechatronics applications. Results: Students were encouraged to develop their problem-solving approaches when developing their designed robots, for a mechatronics project given to them. In this way, the researchers fostered the active and motivated participation of students; an increased interest was found related to several factors, including challenge, competition, group participation, and more. Conclusions: This research aimed to evidence the use of upcycled and recycled materials in product development to fulfill some of the sustainability goals. The research’s results were very promising and has sparked an ongoing research.

This chapter presents the design and development of an open-source, low-cost robot for K12 students, suitable for use in educational robotics and science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM). The development of DuΒot is a continuation of previous research and robot's innovation is based on three axes: (a) its specifications came from the 1st cycle of action research; (b) robot's visual programming language is integrated into the robot, taking advantage of the fact that it can be programmed from any device (smartphone, tablet, PC) with an internet connection and without the need to install any software or app; (c) is low-cost with no “exotic” parts robot than anyone can build with less than 50€. Furthermore, the robot's initial evaluation is presented -from distance due to emergency restrictions of Covid-19 is presented by the University of Crete, Department of Preschool Education's students.