For the second a part of our RoboHouse Interview Trilogy: The Working Life of the Robotics Engineer we communicate with Wendel Postma, chief engineer at Project MARCH VIII. How does he resolve the conundrum of integration: getting a bunch of single-minded engineers to in the end serve the wants of 1 single exoskeleton consumer? Rens van Poppel inquires.
Wendel oversees technical engineering high quality, and shares chargeable for on-time supply inside funds with the opposite challenge managers. He spends his days wandering across the Dream Hall on TU Delft Campus, encouraging his group to discover new avenues for creating the exoskeleton. What is feasible inside the time that we’ve? Can conflicting design options work collectively?
Bringing dangerous information is a part of the chief engineer’s job.
There isn’t any scarcity of hobbies and actions for Chief Engineer, Wendel. Sitting nonetheless is one thing he can’t do, which is why exterior of Project MARCH, he’s doing plenty of sports activities. This 12 months, Wendel is ensuring the group has 1 exoskeleton on the finish of the 12 months as a substitute of many alternative elements. He additionally communicates effectively inside the group so all of the technological advances are understood and with a category of yoga so everybody can loosen up once more. Wendel has many alternative objectives. For instance, he later needs to work within the well being trade and full an Ironman. Source: Project MARCH web site.
In every day life, Arnhem-based Project MARCH pilot Koen van Zeeland is an govt in laying fibreglass within the Utrecht space. He was recognized with a spinal wire harm in 2013. Koen is a tough employee and his telephone is at all times ringing. Yet he likes to make time to have a drink along with his associates within the pub. Besides the pub, you may also discover him on the moors, the place he likes to stroll his canine Turbo. Koen can be tremendous sporty. Besides figuring out thrice per week, Koen can be an avid bicycle owner with the purpose of biking up the mountains in Austria on his handbike. Source: Project MARCH web site.
Koen van Zeeland is the first take a look at consumer of the exoskeleton and has management over the actions he makes. Project MARCH subsequently calls him the ‘pilot’ of the exoskeleton. As the twenty-seventh and maybe most vital group member, Koen is valued extremely inside Project MARCH VIII. Source: Project MARCH web site.
Project MARCH is iterative enterprise.
Most of its office drama comes from the urgency to ship a minimum of one vital enchancment on the prevailing prototype. This 12 months’s obsessions is weight; a lighter exoskeleton would require much less energy from each pilot and motors. Self-balancing would change into simpler to understand.
In order to not weaken the body of the exoskeleton, there was plenty of enthusiasm to experiment with carbon fibre, which is each a light-weight and robust materials. Something, nonetheless, bought in the best way: the group struggled to discover a pilot.
My job is ensuring that ultimately we don’t have 600 separate elements, however one exoskeleton.
“Having a test pilot is crucial if we are to reach our goals,” Wendel says. “Our current exoskeleton is built to fit the particular body shape of the person controlling it. The design is not yet adjustable to a different body shape. So it is crucial to get the pilot involved as quickly as possible.”
Not having a pilot was anxious for the whole group.
Their dream of making a self-balancing exoskeleton was in peril. Wendel needed to step up: “As chief engineer you have to make tough decisions. Carbon fibre is strong, but not flexible and difficult to machine. That is why we switched to aluminium, because it is easier to modify even after it is finished.”
“It was a huge disappointment,” Wendel says. “Some of us had already finished trainings for carbon manufacturing. Carbon parts were already ordered. The team felt let down. We had spent a so much time on something that was now impossible – because of the delays caused by having no pilot.”
“I learnt that bringing bad news is part of the chief engineer’s job. The next step is to look at how to convert the engineers’ enthusiasm for carbon fibre into new solutions and to redeploy their personal qualities.”
Wendel says the job additionally taught him to contemplate 100 issues on the identical time. And to make sacrifices. Project MARCH entails lengthy workdays and perhaps not seeing your mates and roommates as a lot as you desire to.
As a naturally curious particular person, Wendel came upon that curiosity have to be complemented by grit to make it in robotics. You typically have to go deeper and examine in additional element to make a superb choice. “It is hard work. However, that is also what makes the job so much fun. You work in such a highly motivated team.”
That can be what makes the job a lot enjoyable.
The carbon story ended effectively, although.
When the group did discovered a pilot, hard-working Koen van Zeeland, the selection for aluminium as a base materials paid off. Through a means of weight evaluation, elements can now be optimised for an ever lighter exoskeleton.
The Project MARCH group continues to develop by means of setbacks and has doubled-down on their efforts to create the world’s first self-balancing exoskeleton. If they succeed, it is going to be an enormous success for this distinctive means of working a enterprise.
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Rens van Poppel