Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1093246
56 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I MARCH 2019 ing Atlas from Boston Dynamics, which is one system; now, you have two systems that some- times work together and often contradict each other. Shaughnessy: Is there circuit board design being taught in your college? Do they have circuit board design classes? van der Marel: No, besides the basic circuitry theory, we get very little circuit board design in college. I think that's missing. Shaughnessy: PCB de- sign education is hard to find. We see EE grads that get into the industry and don't even know basic PCB design. van der Marel: It's one of the main reasons most of us joined this team because we have stud- ied for four to five years, and we didn't get any practical applications to work on. With this team, we finally can put our studies to practi- cal use and learn about stuff that we will find in the industry. Shaughnessy: Have you done other trade shows with this exoskeleton? Arriens: A couple. AltiumLive is a big event for us. Shaughnessy: Is there anything else you want to add? Arriens: We're still looking for sponsors, espe- cially consultants who could help the electri- cal departments. We don't have a lot of expe- rience, and we design all the technology our- selves, so we need experts to review them be- cause sometimes there are still mistakes or practical uses or methods we don't fully un- derstand. van der Marel: One of the main issues is that we work in short terms of one year. We build an exoskeleton in one year, and because there are so many improvements in every ver- sion, we need to redesign every PCB every year, which makes it difficult to get it right in one go. Shaughnessy: And how many PCBs are in each one? Arriens: For each motor con- troller, we have a PCB, so there are currently six. There's one big board for the power. Then, there are six general slaves; that's 13 or 14 boards at once. van der Marel: In the next version, that will probably increase. It's a challenge to fit it all in. Shaughnessy: It sounds like a lot of fun, and a challenge too. van der Marel: There are a lot of challenges. It's amazing that you can work with such a big product with 23 people for a whole year; it's a pretty good time. We're all very passionate students. We do this voluntarily for a full year without getting paid at all, but that doesn't bother us because the project is very inspiring and motivating. Shaughnessy: Wow. And if someone wants to donate, where should they go? Arriens: We have a website where you can do- nate yourself for Project MARCH. If you're pas- sionate about the project and interested in our work, you can donate there. Shaughnessy: Thanks, guys. Good luck with the competition. van der Marel: Thank you for your interest, Andy. Arriens: Thank you. DESIGN007