newsletter November 2018
Inspiring Young and Old Text: Ola Kirkerud Photos: Kristine Stray / Ascend Ntnu, Øyvind Ingebrigtsen & Karoline Halvorsen
Most high schoolers do not know what they are going to be when they grow up, and we in Revolve NTNU feel that it is our responsibility to make sure everyone know what it is like being an engineering student. Because of that, November has been full of activities where we present what we are doing. It all started with “Girls and technology” at NTNU where girls from high schools in the Trondheim area got to experience what it is like to be an engineering student. We attended with the 2016 car Gnist and hopefully motivated many girls to become future engineering students. Later in the past month, we packed up last year’s driverless car Eld in the trailer and drove down to Kongsberg. There we presented our project and what we do, on a stage in front of over 400 local senior high schoolers.
Showing off what we do and our cars to the Norwegian industry is also very important for us. That is why we went to Industri Futurum at Gardermoen, an exhibition hosted by Norsk Industri. For this event, we brought last years electric car Atmos and talked to hundreds of Norway’s industrial workers. As usual, our presence drew a lot of attention. Lastly, we also went to IT pulse, an inspiring day hosted by Evry Norway. During this event, our project manager Karoline Halvorsen held a presentation in front of both fellow students and people working in the IT industry.
PCB Prototyping Text & Photos: Martin Berger
PCBs are fantastic devices connecting electrical components together to run electrical systems. In Revolve NTNU we have a lot of electrical systems that have to handle all the signals and sensor data we send and receive in our cars. It is really important that they work well when the cars are finished.
way we can use the prototypes to find out which solution works the best. Modelling and knowing exactly how the systems on the PCB behave is not easy and that is why prototyping is so useful. Building the systems we can test them and find out exactly how they will work in the end.
This month we received our prototype PCB designs and a lot of components which we can assemble onto our circuit boards. This has made the guys in our embedded electronics group quite excited. Now they can test their designs and the solutions they have thought of. This is an important step in the production of our final electrical systems. The prototypes that have been made are larger than the final product and have multiple possible solutions incorporated. That
Another good reason to make prototypes of the PCBs is that our members get more experience working with them. Because they are working with small and delicate electrical components, the assembly task is not easy. Gaining the knowledge of how to handle components and assemble the circuit boards is important for when we have the final design. It is a good thing that they can learn by trying now. We can be certain that they will assemble the final systems properly.
Designfreeze Text: Erik Brettingen Johansen Illustration: Martin Berger
Designfreeze at 1st of December is the biggest and most important deadline so far in the project. This is the deadline where close to the full design of the cars is locked so that the manufacturing process can commence in January. This means that most of the car is fully modelled on the computer and that many aspects of the car’s performance will be set by this date. In addition, many of the machining drawings are required to be ready too. “One of the most challenging parts of the designfreeze is to make sure that you have thought of everything. There are so many factors within performance, durability and manufacturing processes to consider” Says Karl Martin Palm, head of the suspension group. There are so many systems that have to work together, and the groups need to make sure that every part fits perfectly, is rules compliant, and can withstand the relevant forces. The tough part is to do this while also optimizing in terms of weight and production complexity.
Eirik Bodsberg, Chef Mechanical Engineer, can confirm that all critical systems have met the deadline. “The team has been working relentlessly to meet the deadline at the required quality. Obviously, there have been some challenges, and some of the non-critical systems are still in development. It is inspiring to see what the team is able to produce even when we are reading for exams.” The team also gets training in machine drawings, as some parts have already been sent for confirmation and validation by some of our machining sponsors. Rumours have it that there has been a steady increase in coffee and table tennis matches the last couple of weeks leading up to the Designfreeze.
Embedded Navigation Solutions