Our past projects
Aibrakes Module: Shuriken
The Shuriken is a controlled airbrake mechanism for the Matterhorn Rocket. It plays a core role in the strategy to reach the precise altitude of 3’000m despite the uncertainties of the engine’s total impulse. Indeed, the idea was to select a motor ensuring an overshoot of the targeted height and to actively use the...
Recovery Parachute System using Reefing Technology
The reefing technology consists of actively controlling the opening of the parachute. In the case of the Matterhorn Rocket, such a technology permits to directly deploy the main parachute at apogee but only fully inflate at low altitude. This way, with a single parachute, a high descent rate is maintained from 3’000m to 300m...
6 DOF suborbital rocket trajectory simulator
During our time at EPFL Rocket Team, Eric worked on our custom 3D flight trajectories simulator for our rocket launches. Taking in account the mass, fuel, aerodynamic geometry, air pressure, temperature, wind, launchpad tilt, this simulator helped us on some critical dimensioning of our rockets. Coded in Matlab, this simulator is also used to...
MASER – Mechanical Array of Sensors for Exploration Rover
The Countdown Company decided to participate to the latest’s NASA Tournament Lab-HeroX, Exploring Hell. The competition consisted of proposing a preliminary design of a system sensing obstacles in front of a Venusian Exploration Rover. The Venusian environment required the team to abandon many well known solutions since the temperature are around 450°C and the...
Micos Engineering GmbH – Scattering Measurement Setup
In view of its development activities of optical components for the European space market, Micos Engineering GmbH build a measurement system to determine the bidirectional scattering distribution functions of diffractive components and to measure the stray light they generate. Guilain conducted during his internship with the Micos team the design, assembly and qualification activities...
Farm Vet’ – Modified operation table
Our customer, Farm Vet’, needed a new operating table for middle sized animals. Our task was to find an efficient way to meet the main need of the project: being able to elevate 350 kg. Our solution was to modify a hospital bed to the dimensions of the client’s request. Some steel rods were...
Lausanne Racing Team – Battery assembly structure
Development of the structural protective casing for the high performance battery cells (circa 70kg). Challenges were strict competition requirements about safety, integration into the tube frame chassis, quick accessibility to recharge batteries out of the car. First phase involved the coaching of 2 students during the design phase (materials, manufacturing methods, suppliers, etc). The...
Farm Vet’ – Boot Washer
In addition to the operating table, Farm Vet needed a boot-washer. This custom made solution required some particular design to fit in a tight space. A structural analysis ensured that the system would hold the charge of the user. An anti-splashing function helped protecting the user from unwanted stains....
Spiral staircase
Design and study for an external staircase (2 stories). Galvanized steel structure, industrial design, delivered in small sections for easy assembly in an environment with difficult access. Assessment of the feasibility, detailed design, anchoring solutions on the ground and onto the existing building. Project remained on offer stage....