Warwick Boring Team: Global Finalists in Elon Musk’s Not a Boring Competition 2021

Warwick Boring Team is made up of students and alumni from the University of Warwick. Our notable achievements include placing in the top 1% of global applicants at Elon Musk’s boring competition.

About Us

Warwick Boring is a small team of 50 students and alumni from the University of Warwick that formed in 2020. We came together to design and innovate tunnelling technology that centres around speed, sustainability and cost effectiveness. We designed, raised £200,000 and built a tunnelling machine prototype in just 8 months. Subsequently, our efforts meant we were chosen as 1 of 12 finalists from 400 teams worldwide to attend Elon Musk's first tunnelling competition in Las Vegas, in which we competed against the likes of MIT and TUM (The Technical University of Munich). We placed in the top 4 and were the only UK team to have made it to the finals.

This year we are continuing to further innovate, push boundaries and challenge traditional construction and tunnelling methods.

Our Values

Put simply, our mission is to shape the transportation of tomorrow through the development of more innovative and sustainable tunnelling technologies. As a team, we have a core set of values, which every team member strives to embody in all pursuits. These are diversity, sustainability, integrity, inclusion, innovation and challenging traditional industry methods.

Our Technology

We’re proud of last year's machine design, but from our experience (from our respective competitions in Las Vegas and testing at our UK site), we are keen to continue its development moving forward. We are working hard to improve our machine, not only in terms of performance but also making it more cost-effective and energy efficient. On top of that, we are adapting our design to include modularity, meaning we can continue to evolve individual sub-systems in the years to come. Such examples include that of switching our actuators from a hydraulic to an electronic system, and redesigning our launch structure.

Launch

There are two parts of the Warwick Boring Launch system. We have a tipper trailer which serves as transport for the machine and inclines at a 30 degree launch angle. The trailer is fitted with custom interior walls that hold the machine in place. The custom rear wall can be moved forwards. As the machine moves into the ground, it pushes against the back plate. Once the first stroke of the propulsion system completes, the back plate is moved forward, causing the cycle to repeat.

We also have two HDPE (plastic) tubes, surrounding the gripper pads of the TBM. These serve as mock tunnel lining for when the soil overburden is insufficient for the commence of the tunnel lining procedure. It is split in half and attached with aluminium clamps so that assembly and access is easier. We have four pairs of wheel chocks to block the trailer into position that prevents movement. 10 Concrete bunker blocks, located behind the trailer, also stops it from moving when the tunneling machine pushes against it.

Propulsion

Once we've launched, it is our propulsion system that proceeds to drive the machine forwards with a continuous thrust cycle. Our system is designed to control turns so that we can launch from the surface and then resurface to our target destination.

Tunnel Lining

Tunnel lining is the process of building the walls of the tunnel that will get left behind once the machine has finished digging. At the end, it produces a long, curved, circular pipe underground. Our team uses a techique which combines rapid setting concrete/additive pumped into the machine, which is then continuously extruded around the tunnel circumference.

Previous issues included the concrete's strength, inefficient machinery, and difficulty cleaning the subsystem. Working towards a tangible solution, we will this year be working on the same principle basis but with updated materials, equipment and component configurations.

Soil Removal

To remove the soil from the machine, water gets pumped into the TBM. Then, a slurry pump sucks the water back in with the soil, and these materials get crumpled with the flocculant system. Finally, a vortex filter separates the soil, which goes into a slurry pit, and the water, that will be reused in the cycle.

Material Extraction

Our slurry system has been designed for pure simplicity and efficiency. Through extracting the bored ground material, we have better understood its desired behaviour. For this reason, we have had the opportunity to improve our mechanisms, increased their resilience, added a hose reel for deployment ease, ensured correct filtration using a vortex filter and developed system input and output data.

Electronics

Power and control are simply fundamental to the functioning of our machine. Our electronics teams makes sure that every component on our TBM and at the launch site has the power to complete their designated function. In addition, we have ensured that all components and sensors are in-sync with one another to give us total control of the TBM!

Last year, we opted for 2 separate cabinets for power and control that can be easily moved and rewired. This flexibility allowed for quick adaptation as a result of manufacturer issues and replacements. This year however, we are opting for a more robust, modular design that will stay in one place, with better security features. Other changes include improved cooling and insulation, easier manoeuvrability, and better PLC display systems.

Navigation

We have several sensors on the machine to tell us how the tunnel boring machine is moving. It moves a predetermined path. In case the sensors detect a deviation from a set path, it will try to reroute and change trajectory depending on the initial deviation.

In the previous academic year, our focus was on dead reckoning and LiDAR techniques. Despite this, our focus has now shifted to more robust approaches with a particular emphasis on experimentation and redundancy to find the most apt solution.

Front End

This is the front of the machine - everything concerning the cutterhead, crushercone, slurrycone and the components that power it. In this case the electric motor and gearbox systems. It also contains the extrusion chamber for the tunnelling system. Its main function is everything related to digging and it also houses the soil removal and tunnel extrusion system.

Our Proceeding Goals

As a team, we are never complacent in our ambitions to revolutionise the tunnelling industry. Consequently, our timeline for the year ahead details an action plan to achieve such milestones. This includes:

• Completion of our final report for the SEMI FINALS of the 2023 Not a Boring Competition, provisionally arranged to be held in Austin, Texas in January 2023.
• Undergoing a subsequent round of procurement and testing. This includes finalising a new design for the tunnel lining and front end subsystems.
• Concurrently, our fundraising team is working to finalise new and existing sponsorships and donations. This encompasses other such activities such as grant applications.
• In August, subsystem and full system assembly of our tunnel boring machine (TBM) will be finalised.
• Hence, in September, our machine will be tested on a live site in Norfolk whilst participating in the recently founded European Tunnelling Week, featuring fellow teams met in the previous Vegas competition.

Publicity & Appraisals

Thus far, our team's achievements have been praised, not only through prior competitions, but by leading figures such as Simon Wright, the ex-CEO of Crossrail, and Andy Street, the Mayor of the West Midlands. External acknowledgement has also originated from being featured in Business Insider, BBC Sounds and the New Civil Engineer. We aspire to reach an even wider audience as we continue.

Despite this, our project is not possible without the support from many different organisations to propel our innovations forward. We are therefore immensely grateful to all who have supported us so far as we work towards our goals of revolutionising how society travels.