In-Kind Equipment from Cameron

The centre has received equipment from the industry partner Cameron as part of their in-kind contribution in the centre. The equipment consists of the following:

  • Steel wires for testing in WP5 Condition Monitoring Techniques and using the Bend-Over-Sheave (BOS) machine developed in the centre.
  • Various sensors such as encoders and load cells which will be made available to all work-packages, and/or future student thesis projects.
  • 7 rack servers which will be assembled in a cabinet and made available to researchers and students participating in the centre. The servers will be used for, among other things, to test algorithms developed in the centre, for example processing of 3D sensor data, optimization techniques, etc.

Photos of the equipment when it was delivered on December 29, 2020 are shown below:

Steel wires for testing in BOS machine.
Box containing various sensors and computing equipment.
7 rack servers which will be assembled in the cabinet shown. A UPS will also be added.

Equipment when delivered from Cameron.

Norwegian Society of Mechatronics

Norwegian Society of Mechatronics (NSOM) had their first general assembly on October 22nd with 12 participants*. The society was initiated by SFI Offshore Mechatronics alumni Sondre Sanden Tørdal and Daniel Hagen. The purpose is to serve as scientific and social community for people with an educational background and interest in mechatronics. SFI Offshore Mechatronics welcomes this initiative and look forward to various forms of collaboration.
*The event took place before the second round of covid-19 restrictions in Norway

NSOM is formally registered as an association and the general assembly elected the following board: 

Chair of the board
Sondre Sanden Tørdal* (Postdoctoral Research Fellow UiA, CEO Motiontech)
Co-chair of the board  
Daniel Hagen* (Researcher UiA, R&D Engineer Red Rock)  
Board members 
Sondre Nordås* (R&D Engineer MacGregor)  
Morten Hallquist Rudolfsen (Assistant Professor UiA)  
Andreas Klausen (Assistant Professor UiA)  
Philipp Thomas Pasolli (R&D Engineer Macgregor)
*SFI Offshore Mechatronics alumni

The first general assembly also appointed long time mechatronics enthusiast and assistant professor at UiA, Morten Ottestad, as honorary member of the society. Get in touch with NSOM at post@nsom.no and be notified about upcoming events.

Annual Progress Report 2020

The annual progress report from SFI Offshore Mechatronics was submitted on December 1, 2020. The report is available for the partners in ProjectPlace. Some of the highlights from the report are listed below:

Every time a PhD candidate defends his or her thesis is a highlight in SFI Offshore Mechatronics. During 2020 as many as 7 PhD candidates defended their theses. These are:

PhD-2: Andrej Cibicik (NTNU), PhD defense on January 8, 2020, Title: Dynamics of Rigid and Flexible Manipulators Using Screw Theory

PhD-3: Alexander Meyer Sjøberg (NTNU), PhD defense on January 30, 2020, Title: Estimation and Control on Lie Groups based on Formulations on the Lie Algebra

PhD-4: Aksel Sveier (NTNU), PhD defense on February 18, 2020, Title: Quaternions and Dual Quaternions for State and Parameter Estimation

PhD-5: Martin Hemmer (UiA), PhD defense on May 15, 2020, Title: Condition Monitoring Methods for Large, Low-speed Bearings.

PhD-6: Sondre Nordås (UiA), PhD defense April 16, 2020, Title: Using Digital Hydraulics in Secondary Control of Motor Drive.

PhD-7: Geir Ole Tysse (NTNU), PhD defense April 7, 2020, Title: Modeling and Control of Ship-Mounted Cranes.

PhD-8: Daniel Hagen (UiA), PhD defense September 2, 2020, Title: Improving Energy Efficiency and Motion Control in Load-Carrying Applications using Self-Contained Cylinders.

Many of the remaining PhD candidates in the centre are in the final phase of their projects, and a similar number of completions are expected in 2021. During 2020 5 new PhD candidates and 3 Post.Doc’s have started. These are the final positions during the lifetime of the centre.

During 2020 a high percentage of the scientific journal publications were at the highest level (Level 2). As many as 6 of 19 journal articles, or 32%, were at the highest scientific level, see: https://sfi.mechatronics.no/?p=1935

In addition to producing high level scientific research, the centre also has an ambition to produce results relevant for the industry partners. During the remaining time period the centre management will have a continuous focus on achieving examples of innovation with new work processes, services or products in the industry partners. Another goal which will receive focus, together with the new steering board, is the creation of new projects between the partners. The centre SFI Offshore Mechatronics will officially end in 2023.

Join our Slack group

In 2017, SFI Offshore Mechatronics started using Slack as a collaboration tool. Currently there are 49 members in the Slack group. The Slack group is organized in various channels and each work package has their own channel. Each member can also be reached by direct messaging.  

Slack is an efficient and low barrier way to get in touch with both the center management and the researchers across the different work-packages. We encourage the industry partners to also become members and use this as an opportunity to get in touch and informally discuss relevant topics.  

Most existing members are from the research partners, but we also have some members from the industrial partners. If you are not yet a member you can join by sending an e-mail to sfi@mechatronics.no and ask for access (include your name and company name if you are working in any of the partner companies).

New Steering Board for 2021-22

During 2020 the centre has had an election committee working to nominate new members to the steering board from the industrial partners. The election committee consisted of Ann Marchioro from GCE NODE and Charlotte Skourup from ABB. The nominated candidates were presented to the General Assembly on November 12 and after the votes the following new board was formed:

  • Tom Fidjeland (GCE NODE), new member of the board and new chairperson
  • Morten Halvorsen (NOV), re-elected member of the board and new deputy chairperson
  • Sjur Henning Hollekim (MHWirth), re-elected member of the board
  • Jisha Panikar (Klueber Lubrication), new member of the board
  • Anstein Jorud (Cameron), new deputy member of the board

From the research partners the following members will complete the board:

  • Olav Egeland (NTNU)
  • Torben Ole Andersen (Aalborg University)
  • Geir Grasmo (UiA, in 2021) and Jorun Gislefoss (UiA, in 2022)
  • Thomas Meyer (NORCE), deputy member

Olav Egeland, Jorunn Gislefoss and Thomas Meyer will be new board members in SFI Offshore Mechatronics, while Geir Grasmo and Torben Ole Andersen have both served in previous boards.

The centre management would like to give a sincere thank you to the board members who leave in 2020:

  • Leif Haukom (GCE NODE), who has been the chairperson since the start of the centre in 2015.
  • Eivind Gimming Stensland (MacGregor)
  • Øyvind Mydland (StepChange)
  • Thor Arne Håverstad (NORCE)
  • Houxiang Zhang (NTNU Aalesund)
  • Philipp Schubert (RWTH Aachen)