Festo has once again joined forces with industry partners, Siemens and the Lapp Group, to present the popular Cyber Junkyard 2011 challenge for tertiary institutions. The theme for this year is Bubbles & Brains. It requires students to build a rugged, scale sized car that is air powered and autonomous.
Festo, Siemens and the Lapp Group donate high tech components to the institutions to build the projects. Added benefits of the challenge include technology training from Festo Didactic, Siemens Sitrain and the Lapp Group training facilities, as well as industrial exposure and career opportunities.
For the 2011 competition, Festo sponsored a wide variety of pneumatic and electronic components. The car is pneumatically powered, driven by three fluidic muscles (MXAM-10) connected to a crankshaft. Steering is performed with a through-rod cylinder (ADN-40) and an analog position sensor (SMAT-8M). The fluidic muscles and steering cylinder are controlled with a valve terminal (MPA-MPM-VI), fed from a 20 litre reservoir (VZS-20-B). The reservoir is pressurised to a maximum of 14 bar, which requires the use of high end PLN tubing and QS fittings from Festo.
A Festo MS4 filter-regulator is used to regulate system pressure down to 6 bar. The car is made autonomous by implementing various sensors, such as optical defuse sensors (SOEGRT) from Festo for line following. An electronic analog pressure sensor (SDET-22T) is used for telemetry of the remaining stored energy via a PLC over wireless industrial Ethernet, to determine when it is time to drive into the pit lane for an air refill.
The competing teams will design aerodynamic shells, and have to devise innovative and sophisticated algorithms in order to use the supplied components effectively and efficiently.
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