PhD Defense at UiA on September 2nd

Daniel Hagen defends his PhD thesis on Wednesday September 2nd, see https://www.uia.no/arrangementer/disputas-daniel-hagen-om-forbedring-av-energieffektivitet-og-bevegelseskontroll-i-lastbaerende-applikasjoner

The title of the thesis is “Improving Energy Efficiency and Motion Control in Load-Carrying Applications using Self-Contained Cylinders” and this is the 8th PhD defense in the centre SFI Offshore Mechatronics. It is possible for the public to listen in on the PhD defense, see the link above.

PhD Defense at NTNU on August 11

Geir Ole Tysse defended his PhD thesis at NTNU on August 11, 2020. The opponents were Professor Oliver Sawodny from the University of Stuttgart in Germany and Professor Jing Zhou from the University of Agder. The title of the thesis was “Modeling and Control of Ship-mounted Cranes”.

The trial lecture was on the topic of “control of robots with arm elasticities” and parts of the assessment were: “The candidate gave a very good overview over the state-of-the-art methods of control of robots with arm elasticities. He focused on methods mainly related to differential geometry. He gave good explanations of the main approaches and gave a very good overview over the theoretical and mathematical methods”.

The candidate made important achievements in modelling of ship cranes and load dynamics, in combination with wave excitation. He made important contributions in controlling the crane payload. As part of achieving this, he developed new methods to estimate the effective cable length. He developed a new method of combining MPC approach to the position in outer loop with a Lyapunov-based oscillation damping controller in the inner loop. He showed the efficiency of this approach in several experiments at a test bed developed at NTNU, as well as in simulations.

The entire PhD thesis is made available in ProjectPlace (WP0 – Publications – PhD Theses) for partners in the centre.

New Lab Equipment for Testing Hydraulic Cylinders

SFI Offshore Mechatronics (WP5) and Mechatronic Innovation Lab are in the final stages of setting up a new lab for testing hydraulic cylinders. The equipment is delivered by Bosch-Rexroth and will be located in MIL’s facilities in Grimstad, Norway. It is expected that the new lab will become operation during Q4-2020.

The equipment will be used to test the condition of up to 4-5 seals located inside the cylinder. Seals of varying condition will be placed inside the cylinder, and then acoustic emission sensors will be used to estimate the condition. During the research work in the centre it will be experimented with sensors located both outside and inside the cylinder.

The equipment is owned by MIL and rented by the SFI OM centre for the next three years. The centre will not use the equipment 100% all the time. Hence, other companies or research institutions interested in using the facility can contact MIL.

New Researcher WP6.3

Kevin Roy is a new researcher in WP6.3 Design of soft-sensors based on novel context-aware data fusion techniques.

His background is
• B.Sc. in Physics from Kannur University (India) between 2013 to 2016 with Computer science and Mathematics as subsidiary subjects.
• M.Sc. in Physics was studied at Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad (India) between 2016 to 2018. M.Sc. thesis was based on Computational Physics which involves the investigation of Thermoelectric properties of specific compounds within the Semiconductor range.
• Research Student at the University of Tokyo (Japan) between 2018 to 2019 with Japan International Corporation Agency Fellowship. The main tasks were based on Simulation and Data Acquisition System for the Nuclear Physics Experiments.

New Researcher WP5.6

Dr. Vignesh Shanbhag received his M.Tech in Manufacturing Engineering from Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) in 2015, and a joint PhD degree in Manufacturing Engineering from Deakin University (Australia) and Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (India) in 2019. He currently holds Postdoc position at NORCE. His research interest include condition monitoring of machine parts, quantification of machine tool defects using optical profilometer, and nano surface finishing of nonferrous alloys.

New Researcher WP5.4

Mohamed Yusuf is a new researcher in WP5.4 Condition-based lifetime prediction as result of calculated component loads.

His background is:

  • B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Debrecen (Hungary) between 2013 to 2017 with a specialization in “Operation and Maintenance”.
  • Erasmus+ scholarship to study a European Joint Master Degree specialized in Tribology of Surfaces and Interfaces between 2017 and 2019.
  • M.Sc. was studied at the University of Leeds (UK), University of Ljubljana (Slovenia) and Luleå University of Technology (Sweden) respectively. M.Sc. thesis written in cooperation with the Swedish Engineering company Sandvik AB.

    M.Sc thesis was aimed at creating a FEM-based Multiphysics model of a spiral groove bearing used by Sandvik in their cone crushers, in order to gain a deep understanding of how it operates and to suggest design improvements based on the model.

    Starting from October 2019, Mohamed has been employed as a research assistant in the Off-Highway branch of the MSE institute at RWTH Aachen University and is co-supervised by the head of the Off-Highway branch, Stephan Neumann.

  • PhD Thesis Submitted WP2.1

    Geir Ole Tysse submitted his PhD thesis at NTNU on February 26, 2020. The title of the thesis is: Modeling and Control of Ship-Mounted Cranes. This is the 4th PhD thesis completed in WP2.

    PhD Smart Tools Workshop, November 23

    Note: The workshop has been moved to November 23! The final program may change.

    Registration for the workshop can be made here: https://sfi.mechatronics.no/signup2

    Program:
    9:30 Registration and coffee
    10:00 Introduction to Julia programming language, applications in control systems, robotics and machine learning (Mattias Fält, Lund University)
    11:30 Introduction to Docker, Git and Python (Christian Auby, University of Agder)
    12:00 Lunch
    12:45 Interactive workshop (Christian Auby)
    • Installing and setting up Docker, Git and Python (bring-your-own device!)
    14:00 Coffee break
    14:15 User manual presentations
    • Production of user manuals using screen recording (Asle Pedersen)
    • Lens.org Patent and Scholarly Search and Analysis (Asle Pedersen)
    • Overleaf+Mendeley (Atle Aalerud, tbc)
    • Cloud based GPU accelerated brute force optimization (Joacim Dybedal, tbc)
    15:30 Introduction of Norwegian Society of Mechatronics (NSM)
    15:45 Program finished
    17:00 Social program start
    • Dinner (place tbd)

    Workshop on Innovation Management, March 25

    SFI WP7 Workshop for ‘Innovation Management’
    March 25, 2020, 09:00 – 12:00
    Place: GCE Node, Tordenskjoldsgate 9, Kristiansand

    Agenda:
    09:00-10:00 Tor Helge Aas, UiA HH: Innovation management in industry
    10:00-10:30 UiA Nyskapning: Spin Off activity at UiA
    10:45-11:15 Technical, TBD
    11:15-12:00 Lunch