Back in April, the city of Madrid hosted UNVEX’12 Conference and Exhibition, the Spanish Summit on Unmanned Systems. The showcase of unmanned air vehicle (UAV), ground (UGV) and marine (USV) technology was impressive, breaking records for both participants and visitors. The Exhibition Hall included 36 exhibitors, and attendees were given the opportunity to see live demonstrations of the unmanned vehicle technology at the Marugán airfield.

Carlos Matilla Codesal, Project Manager, FuVe-E

Of particular interest to 3DVIA users was the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) booth which presented the projects of many of its colleges and groups, including ETSIN (Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Navales) and FuVe-E (Future Vehicles and Entrepreneurs). For quite some time now, both ETSIN and FuVE-E have been using Dassault Systemes and 3DVIA’s 3D tools to enhance their development of unmanned vehicles; suffice to say, they were more than ready to show off what they’ve been working on. On display were the underwater gliders ETSIN students had designed for competition last year in the UPM 2011 International Academic Competition on Underwater Gliders Design. Additionally, FuVe-E revealed the unmanned vehicle they will be competing with in the upcoming RoboSub international competitions.

Ernö Péter Cosma, a Naval Architect and PhD candidate at ETSIN, has been the driving force behind implementing and promoting 3DVIA tools through his 3D-Seed project. From the beginning, Cosma understood the value of using 3D models built with 3DVIA Shape; he created a walk-through campus using 3DVIA Shape and 3DVIA Scenes in order to entice future students, familiarize current students and promote the school as part of the UPM system. Cosma even built an online museum for the winners of the UPM 2011 winners. Most valuable is that he has had feedback from his students that working in 3D has added a new dimension in their rational thought!

We are so impressed with ETSIN and FuVE-E’s fantastic designs and wish we could have made the trip to Spain to see them in person! From the original designs to the creation of a virtual museum for the finished competitors, ETSIN and FuVE-E shared their creation experiences and utilized so many facets of 3DVIA’s available capabilities.