Team Bath Hydrobotics, the University of Bath’s student-led underwater robotics team, reached the final round of this year’s Immersive Design Challenge, held online last week.
Led in partnership by Siemens and Sony, this year’s competition challenged students around the world to make a product or process more sustainable using Immersive Engineering, combining the Sony XR head-mounted display with Siemens’ Designcenter X NX software.
The hydrobotics team are designing and building a durable underwater robot that can be easily manoeuvred and reliably carry out underwater sustainability and ocean preservation tasks, from offshore wind farm maintenance to coral reef modelling.
Their competition entry saw the team use the software’s modelling capabilities to build virtual prototypes, reducing the need for multiple physical iterations and accelerating development of their robot.
Ahmed Al Yasin is the team lead for Team Bath Hydrobotics and a second-year Aerospace Engineering student. He said: “Rather than relying solely on intuition, immersive design lets you experience the data in 3D and visualise how the robot behaves in real time.
“These tools mean we can model, analyse and refine our design more efficiently and reduce the need to build lots of physical prototypes. This means we can make faster, data-driven decisions, while improving performance and sustainability.”
This year’s competition saw more than 1,900 participants enter, with 54 teams from 13 countries advancing to the second round of the challenge. Just three teams made it to the Grand Online Final.
Dr Tareq Assaf, the team’s academic supervisor and a lecturer in robotics engineering, said:
“Reaching the final of a global competition is a tremendous achievement and a testament to the creativity, dedication and technical excellence of our students. This competition is really challenging, and I am proud of the students’ achievement.
“Attendance at this event is also a great opportunity for the students, the team, and the University to gain international visibility and exchange ideas on an international stage.
“This experience has not only advanced the team’s engineering knowledge but helped them develop invaluable skills in collaboration, problem-solving and the practical application of emerging technologies that will serve them well in their future careers.”
Immersive design bridges the real and digital worlds, allowing designers to interact with a ‘digital twin’ of their product through virtual or augmented reality. Teams first submitted an outline of their idea, while those advancing to round two made visualisations or prototypes of their idea using Siemens’ industry-strength engineering and design software.
The finalists received in-person training from Siemens experts, bringing their concepts to life with the Sony XR head-mounted display and Siemens Designcenter X NX software, before showcasing their projects at Siemens Realize LIVE event last week.
Joining Team Bath Hydrobotics in the final were Team 210 Robotics from The University of Texas at San Antonio, USA, and Team Perico from Instituto Tecnológico Superior de Ciudad Serdán, Mexico. Team 210 Robotics developed a free-roaming robot to automate 3D printing post-processing at scale, while Team Perico designed a rescue drone to find missing people on Pico de Orizaba. Team 210 Robotics were announced as the winning team.
The universities of the three finalist teams also received a Sony XR headset, a one-year license for the Designcenter X NX Academic Edition, and a career opportunities webinar for students to use and access.