The fields are muddy and the wind is cold in Rødbyhavn, Denmark, where the Fehmarnbelt fixed link is under construction. But spirits are high among a group of DTU students flying drones and operating robots as part of their course on autonomous systems.
The 15 MSc students are the first DTU students to move into the new residential college, which serves as a knowledge and learning centre for sustainable construction - initially as part of the Fehmarn Lighthouse project. From here, they have the opportunity to observe construction of the 18 km tunnel connection between Denmark and Germany.
This endeavour is not only Denmark’s biggest infrastructure project ever, but will be the world’s longest immersed tunnel upon completion. The project is part of DTU’s strategy to combine teaching and research with experience and knowledge from real-life projects.
“DTU’s ambition is to be present all over the country. I’m therefore pleased to see that the first students have visited Rødbyhavn, where they can get close to the largest immersed tunnel project in Europe. The project presents many exciting challenges in engineering, and there will be plenty of opportunities to learn new things. It’s a unique opportunity to gain valuable knowledge,” says Carsten Orth Gaarn-Larsen, Senior Vice President at DTU.
Safety and logistics challenges
The purpose of the course is to investigate robots and drones can be used to help solve the safety and logistics challenges that can occur on a construction site.
This technology makes it possible to monitor the number of workers wearing safety equipment or find blind spots on excavators and trucks. It also helps with keeping track of the development of a construction site, where building materials are often moved around a lot. And finally, it enables checking whether the roads are sufficiently stable for vehicle use. For example, if the roads are too muddy, the trucks use too much diesel.
The students get to choose which challenges they find most relevant to investigate. When they return to DTU, they will analyse the data and come up with suggestions for how to optimize the routines at the Fehmarnbelt construction project.
“This is our first time here, and there are a lot of new things to deal with. That’s why we’re starting small by teaching how to monitor with drones and robots. The Rødbyhavn are is unique to us because it’s so big. But our drones enable us to cover very large areas and collect 100 times more data than we could manually. There’s great potential,” says DTU PostDoc Rasmus Eckholdt Andersen, who is the course supervisor.
