Virtual tour of innovations - Product Design
On this page you can find demonstrations of our latest innovations regarding Product Design.
Fast drone-based automated inventory taking
The demo shows a cost-effective indoor localization system for drones so it can automatically perform a warehouse inventory. See our drone fly fast through the racks and perform an inventory task in a few seconds. Several sensors are used to track and control the drone and to avoid collision and obstacles.
Experts:
Pieter De Clercq, Flanders Make vzw
Kurt Geebelen, Flanders Make vzw
Co-development of control software and embedded platform
In the traditional design approach, control software is initially designed taking into account the behaviour of the physical system, but neglecting resource constraints of the embedded platform on which the software will be deployed. Because of this, a lot of integration problems are encountered when deploying the control software on the embedded platform. This results in a substantial prolongation of the required development time of the control software and costly iterations of the embedded platform. To improve this inefficient design process, Flanders Make developed a method and supporting tool that allows a co-development of control software and embedded platform. This method and supporting tool will be demonstrated on the design of a small autonomous vehicle.
Experts:
Davy Maes, Flanders Make vzw
Ken Vanherpen, FlandersMake@.UAntwerpen
Faster machines through mechanism and motion optimisation
This demonstration shows how model based design optimisation tools can be exploited to design faster, more performant machines. Starting from a legacy design, a flexible multibody model is created which allows both structural topology and motion optimisation. The obtained design is run side-by-side with the legacy design to demonstrate the tangible performance improvements.
Expert:
Frank Naets, FlandersMake@.KULeuven
Design process of drivetrain taking into account uncertain conditions
This demo will highlight how an adapted design tool can help engineers to take uncertain values of design parameters into account during the design process.
We demonstrate this through the design process of an electric vehicle drivetrain with “real-word” uncertainties such as different driving behaviour, changing payload or changing environmental conditions.
Experts:
Carlos Lopez, Flanders Make vzw
Gabriel Abedrabbo, Flanders Make vzw
Learning Control for Self Optimized Operation of Machines
The demo shows auto-configuration of complex machines that execute repetitive tasks. This way an operator does not need to manually optimise the operation of the machine for each new task. Short learning cycles allow the machine to produce at high quality from the beginning of each assignment.
Expert:
Jeroen Willems, Flanders Make vzw
Optimal motion planning made easy
With our Rockit software we can easily optimise the planning of the movement of a system like a car, crane, or production machine, …. Some examples are going from A to B as quickly as possible or as energy-efficiently without colliding with still or moving obstacles. We demonstrate the easy planning and show the results on a scale model of a crane.
Expert:
Joris Gillis, FlandersMake@.KULeuven
Drivetrain optimisation tool
A CAD package can do more than just draw. Starting from CAD drawings, the dynamic properties of the machine to be designed or optimised can be added in order to check its dynamic behaviour (virtual engineering). By coupling this with smart optimisation algorithms, a significant reduction of peak and RMS torque and an increase of speed can be realised, without compromising the motion accuracy. This research is the result of the Tetra project OptiMotion and a collaboration between Ghent University, Antwerp University and Flanders Make.
Experts:
Simon Houwen, FlandersMake@.UGent
Abdelmajid Ben Yahya,, FlandersMake@UAntwerpen