FAYETTEVILLE — The Northwest Arkansas Regional Robotics Training Center is set to open in June, Steve Clark, president and CEO of the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce, said Thursday.
The center will collaborate with Northwest Arkansas Community College to offer training in robotics and automation for employees, companies and students. Students will receive a FANU certified robot operator-1 certification and can be certified to become robotics technicians.
The 32-hour program is completed in one week, and it will cost students $1,995, Clark said. Classes are scheduled to begin June 24, according to enrollment information from NWACC. They will be taught year-round.
FANUC, which stands for Fuji Automatic Numerical Control, is a global group of automation companies providing training programs, according to its website. The curriculum is taught as a semester-long course in community colleges in Illinois and Michigan, but Clark said the Fayetteville location will be the only one to offer the program in such a condensed time frame.
“If you’re Tyson, or Walmart or J.B. Hunt, you don’t want to wait four months,” Clark said.
The chamber received a $450,000 grant for the center in 2016. The money from the grant is to be used explicitly for the purchase of robots for the program. So far, Clark said, they have purchased five FANUC robots.
Robots are now used in all areas of the workforce, Clark said. Within a 250-mile radius of Fayetteville, he said there are over 4,000 FANUC robots operating. Walmart, for example, uses robots to help with inventory in its stores.
Josh Watson, who works on behalf of the Fayetteville Chamber and NWACC, is the center’s director and will be teaching the course.
Watson said students do not have to come into the program with a complete understanding of robotics, although it helps to be familiar with the basics.
The maximum class size is 12 students, he said.
Elizabeth Green may be reached by email at [email protected] .