Sensor network to turn additive bridge into ‘living laboratory’
23rd October 2017 11:38 am
World’s first 3D-printed bridge to be equipped with sensor network to understand its properties in use
Britain’s national institute for data science, the Alan Turing Institute (ATI), is to turn the world’s first entirely additively-manufactured bridge, a stainless steel structure that is scheduled to be installed across a canal in central Amsterdam in late 2018, into a ‘living laboratory with a sensor network that will both help to understand how such structures behave in use and allow the bridge to be modified if that proves necessary for user safety.
The project will be carried out with MX3D, the Amsterdam-based robotic manufacturing specialist that is making the bridge, Autodesk, the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Manufacturing Solutions, and scientists from Imperial College London.
The bridge will be 12m long and printed from stainless steel
The bridge is to be a 12m-long stainless steel structure that has been designed by Joris Laarman Lab, a design practice in Amsterdam that specialises in digitally-optimised structures. When completed, it will be not only the first 3D-printed bridge, but also the world’s largest 3D-printed structure of any type. The ATI project will see a network of sensors installed on the bridge to measure both structural data, such as strain, displacement and vibration as it is used by pedestrians and cyclists, and environmental factors including air quality and temperature. Together, this information will help engineers monitor the bridge’s health in real time and assess how it changes over its lifetime.
The ‘digital twin’ of the bridge is being constructed at Imperial College
The data from the sensors will be mapped onto a ‘digital twin’ of the bridge, which is being developed by the steel structures research group of Imperial’s department of civil and environmental engineering. This model will change over time, imitating the real bridge more and more closely as more data comes in.
“The Alan Turing Institute’s digital twin of the bridge will help with the creation of a new design language,” said Gijs van der Velden, chief operating officer of MX3D. Imperial researchers will also work with MX3D to test the steel of the bridge, aiming to anticipate the impact of its use over time.
“This data-centric, multidisciplinary approach to capturing the bridge’s data will also mark a step-change in the way bridges are designed, constructed, and managed, generating valuable insights for the next generation of bridges and other major public structures,” said Prof Mark Girolami, director of the Turing-Lloyd’s Register Foundation Programme for Data-Centric Engineering. The Lloyd’s Register Foundation supports research into reducing risks associated with critical infrastructure.
MX3D has launched an open call for ideas on how it can use the data collected by the sensors, closing in February 2018.
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Leeds to host new £10m Institute for High Speed Rail
23rd October 2017 10:50 am
Leeds University is investing £10m in a new Institute for High Speed Rail that will focus on the design, manufacture and integration of high speed rail infrastructure.
Featuring a vehicle system test facility, the institute will be located close to the HS2 rolling stock depot to the east of Leeds, and will provide both undergraduate and postgraduate courses. Areas of research will include foundations and track, traction systems, braking and energy harvesting, sensor technology and digital systems.
Working alongside the National College for High Speed Rail in Doncaster, the Institute for High Speed Rail will aim to address the skills gap and provide the human resources that the sector is expected to demand.
“HS2 is delighted that the University of Leeds is launching the UK’s first Institute dedicated to high speed rail and system...
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To All of Our Meaningful-, and Supporting-People, of Our Globalized-, and Informative-Extreme (s), of -Intelligence (s); -Investigators; -Supporters; -Officers; Promotional-People; Supporting-Retailers; …:
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To All of Our Meaningful-, and Supporting-People, of Our Globalized-, and Informative-Extreme (s), of -Intelligence (s); -Investigators; -Supporters; -Officers; Promotional-People; Supporting-Retailers; …:
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Mercedes Benz debuts truck platooning system with automated airfield snow clearance demo
20th October 2017 11:26 am
Truck platooning system allows a convoy of commercial vehicles to operate with only one human driver
The four Arco tractors were operated as a semi-autonomous platoon
In what it describes as a “step forward on the road to the fully connected and autonomous commercial vehicle”, Mercedes Benz parent company Daimler has for the first time demonstrated its system for operating a convoy of vehicles working in a coordinated task with only one of the vehicles controlled by a human driver, with four vehicles working together to simulate clearing snow from an airfield. Known as truck platooning, this technology has potential for increasing productivity on normal roads and in enclosed facilities.
The demonstration involved four Arco tractor units equipped with Daimler’s new Remote Truck Interface (RTI), which coordinates data exchange between the vehicles and operates three of them remotely. All the vehicles use dual GPS tracking and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication, which exchanges a full telematics data set every 0.1 seconds.
Every vehicle equipped with the RTI can act as the lead or a follower in the platoon; the driver just needs to designate the lead and define the number and sequence of follower vehicles on a control pad on the dashboard. The convoy can include up to 14 units.
“This opens up new possibilities for our customers: High-precision manoeuvring procedures of conventional trucks, remotely controlled by the driver outside the cab – for example, positioned at the rear of the vehicle with a perfect view of the manoeuvres – are possible, as is unmanned driving in mines, at container terminals or other closed-off sites”, said Martin Zeilinger, Head of Advanced Engineering at Daimler Trucks.
The RTI connects the truck with the outside world, while other functions — such as track computer, wireless data exchange and the operating panel — are housed separately. The platoon driver can control the subordinate vehicles to start and stop their engines; apply the handbrake; steer; operate the throttle; brake; change gear; activate and deactivate differential locks; use signals and safety beacons; and operate peripheral machinery attached to the tractor unit, such as the snow blower.
“An important component of the RTI control unit is the integrated safety concept. This means that all vehicle functions are monitored. The safety routine is executed as soon as an error occurs. In this way we can ensure that the vehicles can be stopped safely and quickly if needed, and can then simply be operated manually”, Zeilinger explained.
The demonstration of clearing snow from an airfield is an example of a situation where platooning
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World’s first floating wind farm delivers electricity to grid
18th October 2017 3:27 pm
The world’s first floating wind farm has started to deliver electricity to the Scottish grid.
Comprising six 5MW floating turbines, the 30MW Hywind Scotland project is located 25km offshore from Peterhead in Aberdeenshire, Scotland and will provide power for approximately 20,000 households. The £190m Hywind project is operated by Statoil in partnership with Masdar.
“Hywind can be used for water depths up to 800m, thus opening up areas that so far have been inaccessible for offshore wind,” said Irene Rummelhoff, executive vice president of Statoil’s New Energy Solutions business. “The learnings from Hywind Scotland will pave the way for new global market opportunities for floating offshore wind energy. Through their government’s support to develop the Hywind Scotland project, the UK and Scotland are now at the forefront of the development of this...
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