Hyperloop 2023

Today, The Hyperloop team from the Universitat Politècnica de València presented its new prototype vehicle, with which it will take part in the world's largest competition in this field, the European Hyperloop Week, to be held from 17 to 23 July in Edinburgh.

The model is the most ambitious to date, as it manages, for the first time, to eliminate friction, both in air and with the surface.

Crew members of the team explain that the prototype tends to "float and move a 200 kg vehicle while consuming the same amount of energy as a toaster". The ultimate goal of Hyperloop technology is to achieve an ultra-fast and sustainable means of transport.

The Hyperloop UPV team is formed by 45 students (20 have already participated in previous editions) from 12 different degrees at the university. It was created in 2016, and since then, each year, the team has designed and built a new prototype, incorporating previous learning and the latest scientific and technical advances.

For the first time, Hyperloop UPV has designed and built the capsule (the vehicle that moves), its interior (for passengers and goods), the electromagnetic levitation and traction, and the vacuum tube. Kénos is the name of the new capsule, and Atlas is the name of the 30-metre stainless steel vacuum chamber in the shape of a tube through which the capsule will slide.

Engineering challenges

Ricardo González, the student in charge of the mechanical and technical team also captain of Hyperloop UPV, highlights some of the challenges they have solved to develop the Kénos and Atlas prototypes: "We have compacted all the mechanical and electromagnetic systems to achieve the necessary space for an interior design that is as realistic as possible. At the engineering level, it has been a great challenge, both in terms of mechanical design, because we have had to make very efficient systems, in terms of performance and volume, and in terms of avionics, to integrate the whole system and the wiring".

Ricardo explains that their participation in Hyperloop brings them benefits in all aspects: "In terms of learning, we receive training that is not seen in the classroom; we acquire professional skills, social skills, transversal skills, contacts with companies, with more young people, we practise English, we travel...".

Lucía Zorroza, Daniel González, Alix Giner and Hugo Albert, students who also participated in the Hyperloop presentation, comment that their involvement is such that their families sometimes don't understand. "For example, they haven't seen us this week," they laugh. Even so, they receive much support from them, so they have mad a presentation in which their families have played a leading role.

Hyperloop UPV is one of the most influential teams of the UPV Factory Design programme of the Universitat Politècnica de València, a unique initiative in Spanish universities based on learning by doing, which promotes the participation of students from different degrees in university competitions. UPV graduates created the Valencian company Zeleros following their involvement and success in Hyperloop UPV in 2016.

In this edition, the team receives the support of 70 companies (including Zeleros), without wich this prototype wouldn't be possible. They are clear: "Hyperloop is here to stay".

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