German projects want to compete with Elon Musk in tunneling
No time right now?
Two teams from Germany are developing a new type of tunnel boring machine as part of a competition organized by Elon Musks Boring Company. A prototype is ready.
In December 2016, Tesla and SpaceX boss Elon Musk announced that he wanted to promote the construction of tunnel systems with the new company The Boring Company in order to relieve traffic above ground. Thanks to a suitable tunnel boring machine, the whole thing should be done comparatively quickly and cheaply. The first tunnels are already being built or planned. As part of a competition advertised by Musks Boring Company, teams around the world are currently trying to develop a new type of tunnel boring machine – including two German ones.
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TUM Boring has finished prototypes
In the summer, when a total of twelve teams screened out of 400 applications present their results in California, two German projects are also at the start. The TUM Boring Team at the Technical University of Munich, founded by the 22-year-old mechatronics student Kilian Schmid, has already completed a first prototype. Schmid’s team has already successfully completed a test drilling, how Businessinsider reports. Now an even more efficient drill is to be built for the competition.
For Schmid, who started building his own tunnel boring machine two years ago to relieve the traffic situation in Munich, one of the biggest challenges in building the machine is logistics. Ultimately, Schmid told Business Insider, building material had to be brought to the front of the machine and the removed material had to be transported out at the same time. In the future, tunneling should be faster and therefore cheaper. The aim of Elon Musk’s vision, which Schmid shares, is to make road traffic underground in the future electrically and autonomously.
In which upcoming competition By the way, it’s about the participants successfully drilling a 30-meter-long tunnel – as quickly and precisely as possible. At the end of the competition, the tunnel and the roadway have to offer space for a remote-controlled mini-Tesla. The tunnel should initially be only half a meter wide.
Dirt torpedo – fast, precise and flexible
In addition to the team from Munich and other large-scale teams such as MIT and ETH Zurich, the DHBW (Dual University Baden-Württemberg) Mosbach project in California is also starting the Dirt Torpedo project. The initiator and team leader is Adrian Fleck. A prototype is in the works and the search for sponsors is underway on the part of the DHBW Mosbach. At the end of the development of the dirt torpedo, there should be a fast, precise and flexible tunnel boring machine. There is great potential for development in areas such as navigation and propulsion. According to their own statements, the Mosbachers are also taking a new path with the tunnel wall.
Meanwhile, the Technical University of Munich is an old friend of Elon Musk’s competitions for the development of future technologies. The team from the Technical University of Munich, formerly Warr Hyperloop, later TUM Hyperloop, had won the Hyperloop pod competition several times in recent years.
