Part of the project team from the Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University (DHBW) next to a tunnel drill. Such drills do not yet manage three meters per hour. That should change with the ideas of the competition. Photo: DHBW
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Mosbach. (zg / cab) At eye level with MIT, ETH Zurich and TU Munich: This is how the students of the Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University (DHBW) in Mosbach rightly seen at the international tunneling competition of Tesla founder Elon Musk. With their “Dirt Torpedo” they are one of twelve teams in the final round.
Elon Musk’s vision and task: to develop a tunnel boring machine that is “faster than a snail”. This is not that easy, because the Roman snail beats the record of tunnel boring machines with its speed of around three meters per hour.
The one from the “The Boring Company” The competition is aimed at innovative inventors who could revolutionize the tunnel boring business with new ideas. The aim of the competition is to drill a 30 meter long and half a meter wide tunnel as quickly and precisely as possible. The final is expected to take place near Los Angeles in the summer of 2021. At first, the Mosbach students themselves did not quite believe that they would make it to the final of the competition as one of only two German university teams.
“Testing the limits of what is technically possible”
“When we started the project in summer 2020, we never expected it. We develop our ‘Dirt Torpedo’ alongside our normal everyday life at the partner company and at the university. It was not always easy to get everything under one roof. Meetings between midnight and 2 a.m. are almost standard “, says Adrian Fleck, initiator and team leader of the project team. Six other Mosbach students from mechanical engineering and electrical engineering, as well as a student and a graduate from TU Darmstadt, work with him on the construction plans.
Supervisor and mechanical engineering course director Professor Gangolf Kohnen supports his students wherever he can: “Here you can test the limits of what is technically possible. A competition like this is a unique opportunity to try out new things.” The final of the competition is about building a prototype that can be sent to the USA. “We are therefore looking for industrial partners who can support us with the production or financing of the individual components or who can organize transport to the United States,” said Fleck.
Info: More information about the project at www.mosbach.dhbw.de/not-a-boring-competition.
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