Over the years a number of interesting designs and suggestions have been submitted. This section of the website has been created for the purposes of keeping these ideas and information available for new students who will be experiencing the challenge for the first time, but also for the purposes of giving fresh ideas some presence in the electronic media space. Past competitors often use this space as a reference for work and design discussions.
Keep the possible themes for year each year in mind when browsing past entries. Past submissions currently on record are:
2010 theme: Motion in Sport.
Using the energy of the 2010 World Cup, students needed to design an application that could showcase SEW Eurodrive and Festo products in the sports arena.
Four entries were selected for final judging: • An Automatic Golf Teeing Machine from the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University • A Soccer Ball Shooting Machine from Stellenbosch University
• An Automated Goalkeeper with Return Function from the University of Johannesburg • An Automatic Goalkeeper Coach from the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal.
2009 : Pick and Place.
A stipulation for this year's competition was for the students to design a "Pick and Place" application.
The participating universities for 2009 were: * North West University - The NWU entry for the 2009 PneuDrive Challenge was a machine designed to sort bottles according to their material type. * University of KwaZulu-Natal - The UKZN entry for the 2009 Pneudrive Challenge was a Cricket Bat Hardening Production System. * Cape Peninsula University of Technology - The pick and place application chosen by CPUT was a rotary storage device. * Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University - The pick and place application chosen by NMMU was a Bottling Production Line project. * Stellenbosch University - The pick and place application suggested by SU was a gantry robot for handling large sheets of float glass. * University of the Witwatersrand - The pick and place application chosen for the 2009 PneuDrive Challenge was a self-propelled seedling planter.
The University of Stellenbosch took the top spot for the third time in a row in this competition with their “Tshabalala Soccer Ball Shooting Machine”.
The design, done by four Stellenbosch Mechanical Engineering students, started from the premise that there are potential shortcomings for many soccer goalkeeper and set-piece training sessions. For example, because many players may be required to take kicks at goal (which limits their training time), and their incoming shots are in effect predictable (which contrasts with the reality of a soccer game). The Tshabalala Soccer Ball Shooting machine is desigend to simulate set-piece training as well as generate random and unpredictable kicks on goal, which could help teams maximise the training time of out-field players and heighten the effectiveness of goalkeeper training.
For more information about the winning entry, click here.
Well done to the winning team and Professor Basson ..!
The University of KwaZulu-Natal, supervised by Anthony Walker came in second with their automatic goal shooting device for goalkeeper training. The students were Calvin Cunniffe, Cameron Israel, Leemeshen Naidoo, and Friedrich W H Schulenburg. For more information about this entry, click here.
The winning students from Stellenbosch University enjoying their trip in Gernamy:
Alex Oelofse; Ivan Deetlefs; Ryan du Plessis and Thabo Mofokeng.
Stellenbosch University walked away with top honours! Their Glass Handling Gantry Robot (Umshini Khulu Wami or UKW for short), came out tops with judges commenting that it was a very good all round project which was backed up with thorough documentation and research. The UKW is a versatile and adaptable gantry robot designed to assist in the manufacture and transport of large sheets of glass in and around the factory. The report included a detailed discussion of the float glass process and the difficulty in transporting large sheets of float glass. Several existing solutions were analysed, and the UKW was presented as an alternative.
The winning students from Stellenbosch University:
Richard Hamman, Theuns Greyvenstein, Thinus Ras, Jacques Visser.
University of the North-West (students - Hanno Snyman and Oswald van Ginkel) took second prize with their Waste Management System which focused on “green business”. The project showed great business acumen and covered most aspects of machine building. For more information about this entry, click here.
University of KwaZulu-Natal (students - M. Bronner and D. Scott) came in third place with their design for a Cricket Bat Hardening Production System. Judges commented that the project was very innovative and showed high levels of complexity. For more information about this entry, click here.