DroGone – the Drone-Catching Drone – is a project that aims to address the rising public security threats with regards to drones.

The ETH focus project from various students differs from current anti-drone systems in the retrieval aspect. While most try to damage and thus crash the enemy drone, DroGone tries to retrieve it in one piece. This makes it possible to engage with enemy drones in public settings, e.g. over open-air festivals, large-scale sporting events, etc. without risking injury of citizens by debris.

Radiate Engineering has been supporting DroGone as a Sponsor and is happy that the students gave their final presentation and successfully launched DroGone!

Simulation Driven Engineering impacts every product development decision, enabling companies to pioneer trailblazing innovations and create highly cost-effective designs. In order to achieve the best results, the right tools are key. The ANSYS 2020 R1 software release addresses this with portfolio-wide upgrades and improvements to the ANSYS software.

„Radiate uses simulation from the very early stages of the development process. To fully explore the entire solution space for a given problem, we use ANSYS DCS to push our development to the limit of what is possible,“ says Simon Grob, head of simulation engineering at Radiate Engineering & Design AG. „DCS empowers us to evaluate a variety of different solution options and optimize designs in the shortest possible time.“

At Radiate, we are very keen to fully explore and exploit the new possibilities with ANSYS, in order to solve the most complex design challenges and create innovative products for our clients!

Mattis Stolze from Radiate Engineering is giving a talk about „Advanced Prototyping“ on November 18th as part of the Lean Startup Zürich group.

The Lean Startup Zürich Meetup group is a community who is passionate about sharing knowledge on the application of lean methodologies in start up and existing companies, big and small including and beyond software and web development.

The event takes place at Liip, Limmatstrasse 183 in Zurich and starts around 6:30 pm.

ABSTRACT „Advanced Prototyping“
The talk focuses on Prototypes are essential for communicating ideas, testing hypotheses, and designing products. Prototypes tackle simple or complex problems, make use of paper and cardboard, 3d printing and cnc milling. There is no limit. This talk will dive into more advanced means, that enable us to invest crucial functions and hypotheses, decisive for a success of the envisioned product. By looking at real world cases, digital and analog means are examined. We take a look at pretending prototypes, cad models and mechanical prototypes, which all share a relative simplicity, low costs and a high learning potential for quick learnings.

SPEAKER: Mattis Stolze
Mattis works as consultant and development engineer at Radiate Engineering. He combines design thinking and mechanical engineering, tackles real world problems and mentors students at ETH Zurich.

AGENDA
6:30 pm Doors open & networking
6:45 pm Introduction to the Lean Startup Framework
7:00 pm Presentation followed by discussions
8:30 pm Networking
10:00 pm Closing

During our visit to the Eurobike 2019 fair, we found an interesting display of innovative engineering ideas. Especially two projects caught our eye, that are both daring and innovative at the same time.

New drivetrain from CeramicSpeed
It’s quite unusual to see a complete redesign of a drivetrain. Usually, innovation is approached within the standard chain and derailleur configuration that we all know. However, CeramicSpeed is attempting to break the mould with its new concept drivetrain called „Driven„. It uses a dual Pinion configuration with a fixed front Pinion and a split rear Pinion that handles the gear shifts. The Pinions are made up of a ring of CeramicSpeed bearings which form the method of engagement. The gear change is wireless with the shifting mechanism, actuator and rechargeable battery housed inside the hollow carbon shaft. By splitting the rear Pinion each half can move independently with gear changes using what CeramicSpeed describes as a “step and follow pattern”. They have been working with the University of Colorado’s Mechanical Engineering Department on the project and it looks both stunning and daring! For a closer look on how it works, check out their video.

Titomic: Additive-manufactured carbon and titanium
The company uses a technology called „Titomic Kinetic Fusion“ for the application of cold-gas dynamic spraying of titanium alloy particles onto a scaffold to produce a load-bearing structure. As with the tube-and-lug frame they exhibited at Eurobike, this can be used to create small components, which are then fused via carbon tubing. Titomic also showed a 3D printed carbon frame they developed together with their partner Varuu cycles. This clearly shows the potential of additive manufacturing in the cycling industry.