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Heidenhain Supports Hyperloop Team

They sponsor the University of Michigan team and donated motion control feedback for their high speed pod to compete in the next stage of Elon Musk’s Hypertube vision of future ground transportation.

Posted: July 10, 2018

The Michigan Hyperloop team is one of the 20 to make it to the next stage of competition based on Elon Musk’s vision of future ground transportation. Their goal is to race along the “Hypertube,” a mile-long partial-vacuum tube in place at SpaceX’s Hawthorne, CA, campus where Musk’s vision is being researched and designed. In Musk’s 2013 ground transportation paper, pods of people and cargo travel between cities at transonic speeds in a network of low-pressure tubes, while self-driving electric cars transport goods from Hyperloop stations to their final destinations around the country.

Heidenhain Corporation (Schaumburg, IL) is supporting the University of Michigan’s Hyperloop team with a sponsorship and donation of motion control feedback for their high speed pod. The Michigan Hyperloop team is one of the 20 to make it to the next stage of competition based on Elon Musk’s vision of future ground transportation. Their goal is to race along the “Hypertube,” a mile-long partial-vacuum tube in place at SpaceX’s Hawthorne, CA, campus where Musk’s vision is being researched and designed. In Musk’s 2013 ground transportation paper, pods of people and cargo travel between cities at transonic speeds in a network of low-pressure tubes, while self-driving electric cars transport goods from Hyperloop stations to their final destinations around the country.

At the Hyperloop competition at SpaceX this month, the third phase called “Competition III” will take place. In order to win, the pod must accelerate to a speed faster than all of its competitors before fully braking in the short distance provided by the track. To support these efforts, Heidehain in North America has provided funds to the Michigan team at the Wolverine level, as well as donated four compact ERO rotary encoders designed for high accuracy and reliability in servo drives. “These encoders for motion control promise to provide the utmost in motor feedback,” said Jonathan Dougherty, a product specialist in the Automation Division at Heidenhain. “We are proud to support these forward-thinking young engineers with tools to enable our future. We wish them the best of luck!”

Michigan’s Hyperloop team credits their success as a truly collaborative effort with a team that has grown to fifty-plus dedicated members. Team media director Emanuel Papageorgiou (BFA ’19) adds, “It’s great to see how many freshmen are actively involved on our team this year. Seeing how many fresh faces took the lead to complete assignments and parts before their deadline, even if they weren’t assigned to them, has been really refreshing and provides our members with invaluable hands-on experience.”

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