From left: Alexander Sterk Hansen, Andrej Cibicik, Kristian Gaarder Rakvåg, Bjørn Håvard Halvorsen, Saghaug, Daniel Hagen.
Every year, on average 20 master thesis projects affiliated with SFI Offshore Mechatronics are delivered at University of Agder (UiA), NTNU, Aalborg University (AAU) and RWTH Achen. We anticipate reaching a total of 160 master thesis projects in the period 2016-2023.
This spring, two master thesis projects at University of Agder also resulted in a gathering of SFI Offshore Mechatronics Alumni. Andrej Cibicik finished his PhD at NTNU and WP2 in 2020 and is now a Research Scientist at Sintef Manufacturing. While working with his PhD he was also active in the design and development of a crane for testing and research purposes related to motion compensation.
The crane has since been moved to the mechatronics engineering lab at UiA where Alumni Daniel Hagen has managed the modification and further development of the crane. Daniel finished his PhD in WP1 of SFI Offshore Mechatronics in 2020 and now holds a position as an Associate Professor at UiA.
Daniel and Andrej have extended their collaboration beyond the SFI project. Together with Associate Professor Muhammad Faisal Aftab at UiA, Andrej, Daniel have supervised two master thesis projects related to the modification and further development of the crane as well as the design and development of a new electric winch system.
The crane is now mounted on the new 1DOF motion platform. The crane is modified with a new control system (Beckhoff) which is integrated with the motion platform, enabling testing control systems for autonomous offshore operations. The 1DOF motion platform provides an excellent playground to test and experiment before eventually moving on to testing on the 6DOF steward platforms in the lab.
Model-based Design of a Winch System for a Downscaled Motion Compensated Knuckle Boom Crane
(Kristian Gaarder Rakvåg)
Towards Autonomous Offshore Mechatronics Systems: Development of a Digital Twin Framework
(Alexander Sterk Hansen and Bjørn Håvard Halvorsen Saghaug)
Congratulation to the students for the delivery of the thesis and finishing their masters degree! We expect more master thesis projects related to the crane and motion platform in years to come.