Among the 4,750 entries from 63 countries were two groups of postgraduate students from Coventry University.

The university’s Team Hercules submitted a design concept for an excavator that drills and extracts spoil using a rotary cutting head. The Hercules excavator transfers soil to a receiving vehicle through a combination of augers and a discharging conveyor belt.

The design was one of only 40 to be awarded a ‘Best of Best Concept’ accolade. The team comprised Selin Koşağan, Chi Liu, Danny McElchar, Apostolos Papamatthaiakis and Rahil Rupawala.

Team Pangea won a ‘Best Concept’ award for an excavator that increases the efficiency of excavating different types of holes. The continuous excavation and transportation of soil speeds up work and reduces energy consumption, according to the concept. This team comprised Qing Ji, Chinnawat Chutimachalothorn, Tiago Cardoso, Joe Hughes, Ganesh Prabhu Thenrajan, Qixuan Wu and Tianye Zhang.

The Pangea excavator is pictured below.

 

Both groups of postgraduates, who study on the university’s Design & Transport and Industrial Product Design master’s courses, produced their projects as part of a three-month collaborative assignment with Leamington-based engineering consultant Ricardo.

They were challenged to design and develop concepts for an excavator to improve digging efficiency on construction sites. The designs were then submitted to the Red Dot Award.

Dr David Shuttlewood, vehicle dynamics specialist at Ricardo Vehicle Engineering, who oversaw the students’ projects, said: “It was both a pleasure and an inspiration for myself and my colleagues at Ricardo to observe such talented young engineers organising themselves as a collaborative multi-disciplined team. The Ricardo project design brief is intentionally constructed in a manner that allows the maximum freedom to innovate, enabling the students to develop creative solutions that have the potential to push the boundaries of future vehicle design.”