X. Aventics International Pneumobile Competition anniversary in Eger

Eger – The international competition for compressed-air vehicles has been held on the tenth occasion in Érsekkert in Eger. Fifty-two teams, more than thirty of them from abroad, submitted acceptable plans, so that there were 46 cars on the starting line. Students applied from twenty-five universities, seventeen of them in countries outside Hungary (Romania, Czech Republic, Poland, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia).

The competition was launched ten years ago, in 2007, by the Bosch Rexroth companies as contest for Hungarian students. In 2008, the first Pneumobile competition attracted sixteen teams from ten Hungarian universities. The event has now grown into a prestigious European competition and the number of competing teams has tripled. For this year’s competition, Bosch and Rexroth provided technical support and the high-tech components needed to build the cars. The two companies remain key sponsors of this engineering competition in 2017.

In his address, Daniel Korioth, Representative of the Bosch Group in Hungary, said, “We are proud that we were the founders of this major competition ten years ago, and that it has met with unquestionable success ever since. The Pneumobile Competition is an example of the excellent cooperation between Rexroth and Aventics. A decade ago, we called on students to contribute through their creativity and special human qualities to shaping the future.”

As in previous years, the compressed air driven cars competed in three sections: distance, manoeuvrability and acceleration. The technical jury also selected the most original construction from the vehicles, all designed and built by engineering students. In addition to the tasks of building the cars and the competition, applicants this year had to present the most complex projects so far.

Apart from the basic categories, 6 teams pitted their strengths in the telemetry section, a special Rexroth-sponsored event. The teams had to implement additional control, data collection and display functions in the use of high-tech devices supplied by Rexroth. The category winner was the formation named PG Power from the Polish Gdansk University of Technology.

Astounding changes since 2007

The first events were held in the courtyard of the Eger plant. The fastest of the first pneumobiles was made by Debrecen students and reached a speed of 25 km/h. In 2011, the greatest distance was a record 10,501 metres. In ten years, the engineering students have multiplied these figures. The fastest vehicle this year, was built by the students of the Riga Technical University of Latvia, crossed the finishing line at 51,92 km/h. In what was perhaps the most exciting and spectacular part of the day’s events, the acceleration section, the cars had to make it along a 220-metre track in the shortest possible time. In 2012, among a strong field, the Szeged team put in a time of 28 seconds, but this year the winning team, the BEST Riga Team from Latvia completed the distance in 23,32  seconds.