The lull before the storm
Submitted by Arthur Vijghen on January 13, 2008 - 9:03pm.The lull before the storm. At the moment, all VDS GROUP T Members are studying themselves to death. Still, no one is 100% focussed: the VDS Europe Design Review is coming up.
On January 23, not even a day after their final exam, the frame team and I will travel to sunny Milano, to stay there for over three weeks. Objective: define and build the first Vision mock-ups. The frame team will start with defining the design space. Simply said, Thijs, Pieter, Jan and Stijn will define the location of each component by placing it into a 1-day-built frame. Next, they will build a first generation prototype (or mock-up) of the frame, based on the results of the design space frame and based on the concept art drawings of the VDS TU Delft Team.
All other Design Review participants will split up into four teams. Managed by the VDS Org Team, advised by leading industry advisors, four automotive mock-up designs will be built: the eMotion, the Safety, the India and the China. I will take care of on-site coverage, making our partners visible to the world and supporting the frame team in all possible ways. The motorteam won't participate in the Design Review. These days they are putting all their effort in the design of the electrical motor and controller.
We would like to thank all our partners in advance. We would like to thank Makita in special, for delivering their professional high-end power tools. The frame team will need every possible power tool to build their frame properly. We also want to thank our distribution partner Mols, for using a Ford Galaxy car and a Mercedes Sprinter truck. Powered by Mols trucks, we're more confident than ever, to engage the VDS challenge!