Phd defenses

WP4.1 Savin Viswanathan (NTNU), defended on May 11.

WP3.5 Thilina Nuwan Weerasinghe, defended on May 25.

Link to all completed Phd defences

Accepted scientific publications

Journal Papers:

J5: Dipendra Subedi, Ilya Tyapin and Geir Hovland: ”Dynamic Modeling of Planar Multi-Link Flexible Manipulators”, MDPI Robotics, May 2021.

J6: Shanbhag, V. V., T. J. J. Meyer, L. W. Caspers and R. Schlanbusch (2021). Failure Monitoring and Predictive Maintenance of Hydraulic Cylinder – A State of Art Review. IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics. Published.

J7: Shanbhag, V. V., T. J. J. Meyer, L. W. Caspers and R. Schlanbusch (2021). Defining acoustic emission-based condition monitoring indicators for monitoring piston rod seal and bearing wear in hydraulic cylinders. The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology. Published.

J8: Falconer, S., E. Nordgård-Hansen and Geir Grasmo (2021). Remaining useful life estimation of HMPE rope through machine learning. To appear in Ocean Engineering.

J9: Joacim Dybedal and Geir Hovland, “CNN-based People Detection in Voxel Space using Intensity Measurements and Point Cluster Flattening”, Modeling, Identification and Control, 2021, Vol 42, No. 2, pp. 37-46.

J10: Savin Viswanathan, Christian Holden, Olav Egeland and Marilena Greco, “An Open-Source Python-Based Boundary-Element Method Code for the Three-Dimensional, Zero-Froude, Infinite-Depth, Water-Wave Diffraction-Radiation Problem”, Modeling, Identification and Control, 2021, Vol 42, No. 2, pp. 47-81.

Conference Papers:

C3: Kandukuri, S. T., V. V. Shanbhag, T. J. J. Meyer, L. W. Caspers, N. S. Noori, R. Schlanbusch (2021). Automated and Rapid Seal Wear Classification Based on Acoustic Emission and Support Vector Machine. PHM Society European Conference. Accepted.

Link to all publications in 2021

A new dataset was recently submitted to the SFI Offshore Mechatronics repository in Dataverse.no. Submitting data to a repository like Dataverse.no is an important effort towards Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable data. Datasets which are published in Dataverse.no gets a uniqe DOI reference which can be referenced in publications.

The dataset published was generated related to research in WP3. The data contains both the raw point cloud data from an outdoor test site, as well as generated images used for training. PhD fellow Joacim Dybedal used the data to train and test a classifier to detect people.

The research results based on the dataset are published in the paper “CNN-based People Detection in Voxel Space using Intensity Measurements and Point Cluster Flattening” (Joacim Dybedal and Geir Hovland, Modeling, Identification and Control, 2021, Vol 42, No. 2, pp. 37-46.).

This year we expect to be able to have an In-Person conference. In the past, the conference has been hosted at University of Agder, Grimstad. This year we are exploring the opportunity to host it at Aalborg University. This will serve as a great opportunity to explore infrastructure, euipment and experiments in particular related to Work Package 1. This is also an opportunity to be introduced to other relevant research initiatives at AAU Department of Energy Technology and The Fluid Power & Mechatronic Sytems group. The tentative date is set to 24.November, however this is not yet final and it may be at an earlier date. The date and a preliminary program will be settled as soon as possible and most likely before the summer break.

Unlocking the innovation potential in a centre for research-based innovation requires an equally important contributions from both the research partners and the industry partners. In an ideal world the research results are relevant and mature enough for the companies to directly apply it in their business. This is however rarely the case, which means that both push and pull efforts are needed to bring promising research results forward.

The path from a TRL3-4 (Technology Readiness Level) up to TRL7-9 which is expected for a company to make large investments into new concepts and technology is known to be challenging. To reach a higher TRL level and to shape new concepts we encourage the centre industry partners to establish industry-driven spin-off projects. A spin-of project is enabling more funding, a dedicated and closer collaboration and also other terms and conditions than what is possible within the scope of a centre.

In SFI Offshore Mechatronics we keep track of the spin-offs. They are categorized as either direct spin-offs or indirect spin-offs. Direct spin-offs from the centre are initiated in collaboration with the academic partners. Indirect spinoffs are within the thematic areas of the research in the centre but initiated independently by the industry partners. The total external funding for the spin-off projects is approaching 125MNOK counting 15 direct spin-offs and 18 indirect spin-offs.

Three companies has also been established as spin-offs from the centre activities and by people with affiliation to the centre. Motiontech AS (founded by SFI Offshore Mechatronics PhD alumni Sondre Sanden Tørdal and related to research in WP2), DropTech As (founded by Mechatronics master students Emil Mühlbradt Sveen and Jørn Folmar Nilsen), Machine Prognostics AS (spin-off from Teknova / Norce Research and related to research in WP5).

The work-packages invite representatives from the industry partners to reference group meetings. The meetings are a great opportunity to disseminate results, to participate in discussions and to get valuable feedback from an industrial perspective. Below is a list of all reference group meetings scheduled in 2021.

WP1: May 19, tentative in Nov
WP2: Mar 25, tentative in Nov
WP3: Mar 25, tentative in Nov
WP4: Mar 25, tentative in Nov
WP5: Mar 16, Jun11, Oct 14
WP6: Apr 26, tentative in Nov
WP7: June 21, tentative in Nov

Geir Hovland has served as the Centre Director as well as work-package leader in WP3 since the project started in 2015. SFI Offshore Mechatronics was the first project and centre hosted by University of Agder to be accepted into the competitive SFI program in Research Council Norway.

Geir has played a crucial role in building up the centre and have been successfully managing for nearly six years. The centre successfully passed the mid-term review in 2019 and the Research Council of Norway funded project is now 75% completed with only two years remaining to the end of the project period.

The partners and his colleagues in the centre are grateful for the great work and collaboration with Geir. We send all the best wishes to Geir in his new endeavor where he will devote his time and efforts in building a new industrial startup company.

The successor in the role as Centre Director is also Geir, Geir Grasmo that is. Geir Grasmo is professor in materials engineering and until recently Geir Grasmo has served as head of department at engineering sciences in University of Agder. Before joining University of Agder in 2015, he spent almost 18 years of his career in various positions in the materials industry in companies such as Alcoa and Elkem and before that as a researcher in Sintef and scholar in HiS (now UiS).

Professor Jing Zhou will take over as work-package leader in WP3. Jing Zhou is also Research Director at Top Research Centre Mechatronics (TRCM).

We are now in the final 2+ years of the project and the remaining period will have a twofold mission; 1. Successfully completion of the project 2. Using the results and achievements from the centre to leverage new opportunities and initiatives for the project partners.

It is expected that increased cooperation between SFI Offshore Mechatronics and TRCM will be beneficial to seize new opportunities and initiatives in the last period of the project.