Month: August 2017

PhD Defence at NTNU

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phd-defence
From left to right: Professor Sergey Ushakov (PhD defence organiser, NTNU), Professor Martti Larmi (Opponent, Aalto University, Finland), Dr. Kevin Koosup Yum (currently at SINTEF), Associate Professor Eilif Pedersen (main supervisor, NTNU) and Professor Geir Hovland (Opponent, UiA and SFI Offshore Mechatronics).

Dr. Kevin Koosup Yum defended his PhD thesis titled “Transient Performance and Emmisions of a Turbocharged Diesel Engine for Marine Power Plants: Numerical Simulation and Experimental Investigation” at NTNU on August 24, 2017. The work was performed at the Department of Marine Technology and the Center for Autonomous Marine Operations and Systems (SFF AMOS), NTNU, Trondheim, with Associate Professor Eilif Pedersen as the main supervisor and Professor Asgeir J. Sørensen and Professor Roger Skjetne as the co-supervisors.

Engineers from MacGregor Visit UiA

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mcg-visit-20170830

22 Mechanical and Structural Engineers from the industry partner MacGregor Norway AS (both Arendal and Kristiansand offices) visited UiA on August 30, 2017. The program for the visit was as follows:

12:00 – 12:30 Information about Mechatronics studies and organisation, by Geir Hovland
12:30 – 12:45 Testing of full-scale components subjected to high loads, by Tom Lassen
13:00 – 13:15 Information about SFI Offshore Mechatronics, WP3, by Geir Hovland
13:15 – 13:30 Information about common R&D project, BIA Manipulator, by Geir Hovland
13:30 – 13:45 Information about common R&D project, Digital Hydraulics, by Morten Kjeld Ebbesen
14:00 – 14:15 Information about tensile testing machines, microscopi, by Cecilie Ødegård
14:15 – 14:45 Demo in motion-lab, motion compensation, by Sondre Sanden Tørdal
14:45 – 15:00 Demonstration of autonomous robotics, by Morten Ottestad

New Researcher WP1.3

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Donkov

Viktor Donkov started as a Ph.D. candidate at Aalborg University (AAU, Aalborg) under WP1.3 on 1 January 2017 with Professor Torben Ole Andersen as supervisor. Viktor holds a B.Eng. degree in mechanical engineering (VIAUC, Horsens) and a M.Sc. degree in mechatronic control engineering (AAU, Aalborg). He graduated the master’s degree with his final thesis “Fault Tolerant Control of a Hydraulic Servo-System”. He spent 6 months as a research assistant at AAU between his graduation and the beginning of his Ph.D. studies.

In the SFI he will be working on WP1.3 with a focus on the use of digital hydraulics in secondary control of cylinder drives.

New Researcher WP4.1

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savin_viswanathan

Savin Viswanathan will work on WP4.1 Integrated simulation of multi-physical systems in offshore operations, starting on December 1, 2017. Before December 1 Savin worked as a university lecturer in India and he holds a MSc degree in Ocean Technology & Management from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.

New Researcher WP4.3

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Fotland

Gaute Fotland will work on WP4.4 Multi-domain modeling and simulation, starting on September 1, 2017. He has a MSc degree from NTNU, Mechanical Engineering, Specialization: Product Development and Materials Engineering.

MacGregor Uses Offshore Technologies in Construction Industry

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Satellite

MacGregor plans to use crane- and lifting technologies from the offshore industry to automate and improve processes in the construction industry. The ambition is to let robots mount facade plates in Norwegian construction processes already in 2020.

See this article at the Norwegian Research Council (in Norwegian): https://www.forskningsradet.no/servlet/Satellite?c=Informasjonstekst&cid=1254028353572&pagename=ForskningsradetNorsk%2FHovedsidemal

MIL, Teknova invest in rope-testing machine

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Teknova_MIL_machine

MIL and Teknova invest in a rope-testing machine to better understand how to predict remaining life of steel and fiber ropes.

“The machine lets us reproduce specific failure mode of a rope. By constantly running the rope over a sheave in a controlled environment, we are able to observe how the rope deteriorates and analyze sensor information to learn which data is important for understanding the road to failure. As a result, we will be able to predict, with greater precision, the remaining life of a rope,” says Thomas Meyer, Business Development Manager at Teknova.

The research institute Teknova, based in Grimstad and Kristiansand, is the leader of Work Package 5: Condition Monitoring Technologies in the Center for Offshore Mechatronics – an eight year long research program funded by the Research Council of Norway and hosted by the University of Agder.

WP5 aims to improve offshore maintenance operations by developing technologies and methods that enable condition-based maintenance strategies. Two of the five subtasks studies large diameter steel and fiber ropes, typical for the offshore industry.

“Our goal is to develop diagnostic and prediction algorithms that will replace human judgment by online monitoring technologies calling for maintenance weeks before failure occurs,” says Meyer.

The rope-testing machine is part of the first key equipment to be installed in the Mechatronics Innovation Lab (MIL), which open in Grimstad August 16, 2017.

“The machine will make MIL an interesting venue for producers of ropes and cranes. Heave-compensated cranes rely on a number of ropes that are constantly run back and forth over a sheave. A better understanding of how ropes perform over time, is of great interest and value,” says Meyer.

With a pull force of 30 tons, the 12 meters long machine manufactured in France, is designed to test ropes with a maximum diameter of 3 centimeters. Since most offshore ropes are thicker, Teknova has already applied for funding for a bigger machine, which would be able to test ropes with diameters up to 12 centimeters.

“Such a machine would be the largest in the world. It would instantly propel MIL to be an international test laboratory for offshore rope testing,” says Meyer.

FACTS:
Bending fatigue test stand
Length: 12 meters
Height: 2.2 meters
Width: 1.3 meters
Weight: 7 tons
Line pull: 30 tons
Producer: DEP Engineering (France)

International Conference on Advanced Mechatronic Systems

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Jing-Zhou

Professor Jing Zhou at the University of Agder plans to organize and co-chair an Invited Session for the 2017 International Conference on Advanced Mechatronic Systems (ICAMechS 2017) held from December 6 – 9, 2017 in Xiamen, Fujian, China. The deadline of the paper submission is September 01, 2017. The website of the conference： http://icamechs2017.hqu.edu.cn/index.htm. If you would like to contribute, contact Prof. Zhou before 20 August.

ICAMechS-2017