The Machine
Every subsystem on our machine is carefully designed, analysed and built by students. From the cutterhead to the control panel, everything is meticulously researched and planned to create a fully functioning end product.
The Challenge
The competition site at Bastrop, Texas sits on high-plasticity "fat" clay. It's not hard to cut (it's worse than that). It's sticky. It clings to cutting tools, clogs openings and grips onto anything it can.
Our design starts with the soil, characterising how the clay behaves and letting the data drive our major design decisions.
With the help of our academic supervisor Nikolaos Reppas, we are writing a paper on simulating tunnel boring effects on this style of clay.
| Factor | What it means for the machine |
|---|---|
| High plasticity | Clay deforms and smears rather than breaking up |
| Adhesion | Spoil sticks to steel; clogging is the real enemy |
| Moisture sensitivity | Behaviour shifts dramatically with water content |
| Extraction | The ground grips the machine on the way back out |
The Anatomy
Laboratory characterisation of the competition clay and the handling of sticky spoil, in collaboration with academic staff. The data that gates every other design decision.
The business end: excavating the face without clogging, the defining problem of digging in fat clay.
Generating and transmitting the forces that advance the machine into the ground, and get it back out again.
Industrial-grade motor control, instrumentation and safety systems, built to the electrical standards required on the competition site.
Site logistics, safety procedures and dig-day operations: the discipline that turns a machine into a performance.
How we work
Every load, torque and power figure on this machine traces back to a calculation someone on the team can defend. Design parameters live in a single source of truth, every assumption is flagged and owned, and major decisions stay open until the ground data says otherwise.
It's how real engineering teams work, and that's the point.
Test the ground. Understand the enemy.
Freeze the concept only when the data supports it.
Full design package, reviewed by The Boring Company's engineers.
Manufacture, test, and put it in the ground.
Partners get the detail we don't publish: design reviews, build updates and the numbers behind the machine.
Partner with us