What if tools could see and locate bolts in various assembly processes? As an industrial PhD student, this is what Mechatronics Engineer Sofia Olsson is researching.
I’m doing a PhD in Electronics and Embedded Systems at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. My research focuses on how to find optimal solutions for custom-made software to be implemented on custom-made hardware.
The project centers around computer vision, giving Atlas Copco tools ‘eyes’ so they can see and locate bolts in the assembly process. The vision system that I’ll put on the tools will locate the bolts and understand how to tighten the bolts while the operator is actually moving the tool around, which can help to error-proof the assembly process. This increases quality of course, but also reduces waste, which is good from an environmental point of view.
I am. It’s creating value for society and the environment. We’ll be dealing with algorithms that require a lot of computing power so we’ll need the hardware to process that data. I want to make the hardware as energy efficient as possible, for an optimized solution for software and hardware. I’ve just started my industrial PhD so my next step is to keep learning more.