The Professional Master's program is a one year program divided in four quarters, three of these will be dedicated to lectures and to practical activities while the last quarter will be dedicated to the internship in the facilities of agri-mechanics partners and to the thesis. The common thread of the whole study period will be provided by a project that will start in the first quarter and it will end in the last quarter.
The programme will start in Ireland and it will take at the Institute of Technology of Tralee, where during the first quarter the following lectures will be addressed.
- Agricultural Engineering Design: this module will provide to learners the knowledge and skills to be proficient in use of 3D solid modelling CAD software and drafting techniques as well as adaptive manufacturing in the form of 3 D printing. Students will also be able to simulate real applications with the use of FEA and CFD. Added to this learners will learn various marketing functions, economic, cost and financial tools as well as how quality is controlled in agri-machine manufacturing.
- Agri-mechanics: this module will provide to learners the knowledge about telematics management systems and optimization of agricultural machinery fleets through the use of CANBus and ISOBUS (these systems are now present in all modern agricultural machinery), alternative propulsion systems (electric, diesel-electric and bio-fuel), traction systems for reducing soil compaction and hydraulic systems management;
- Control Instrumentation & Monitorig: this module will provide to learners the knowledge about sensors to be used for different applications in the agricultural field, create analog and digital interfaces for different types of sensors. They will also learn how to create sensors to be programmed through the use of Arduino and the LabView program.
The second quarter will take place in Italy, at the Department of Food Science and Technology (DISTAL) of the Alma Mater Studiorum - University of Bologna, where the following topics will be discussed:
- Soil Mechanics: this module will provide to learners the principles of soil mechanics and how to use them for the design of agricultural machines and the analysis of field data;
- Agricultural Machine Homologation: this module will provide to learners the knowledge of European regulations for the homologation of agricultural machinery and the types of tests to be carried out for homologation purposes, such as those relating to the verification of protective structures (FOPS, ROPS, etc.);
- Data Acquisition & Analysis: this module will provide to learners to acquire data through the use of software and hardware in order to evaluate the forces, voltages, temperatures, rotational frequencies, powers, flows and pressures involved in the different components of agricultural machinery.
The third quarter will take place in France, at the Université de Bougogne, Vesoul Agrocampus and Agrosup Dijon, where the following topics will be discussed:
- Agribotics: term derived from the union of the words agriculture and robotics, this module will provide to learners the basics of control and automation also identifying their respective applications. Notions about the history of robotics and possible future developments in the agricultural field will also be provided;
- Agri Machines connected to Tractors: this module will provide to learners how it is possible to vary the traction performace in order to optimize it according to the implement used to perform different types of work, it will also analyze, through the use of test benches, the characteristics and performance of different types of engines in tractors;
- Precision Farming: this module will provide to learners to the importance of using Precision Farming in terms of reducing cultivation costs and environmental improvement, they will use software such as QGIS and ArcGIS for the analysis and geo-referencing of the data detected by sensors mounted on implements and agricultural machinery.