Chalmers students John Bredvad-Jensen and Jakob Johansson are the 2023 winners of the Swedish Association for Quality’s award for best degree project in quality and business development, in memory of Olle Jonson.
The award-winning project is entitled "A profitable implementation of collaborative robots" and was carried out within the Mechanical Engineering programme. A collaborative robot is a robot that can safely collaborate with and work closely to humans, unlike traditional industrial robots that need to be placed inside extensive machine protection.
"We chose this subject because we wanted to do a degree project within traditional Swedish industry that could result in something concrete," says John Bredvad-Jensen.
"The response we have received to our work has only been positive. Volvo, our client, was very happy with the project, as was our examiner and supervisor, Peter Hammersberg. He also recommended us to apply for the Olle Jonson award, which we did, resulting in us winning," says Jakob Johansson.
John and Jakob accepted the award at the conference World Quality Day on 9 November, 2023, where they also presented their work and conclusions.
"We hope that the project will lead to the implementation of our solution. We also hope that our work will contribute to an increased level of knowledge both at Volvo and among the public and show what opportunities collaborative robots offer, as well as show what steps are required to implement them," says John Bredvad-Jensen.
The jury’s motivation
"The study shows that you can reduce errors and create both improved ergonomics for operators and safe handling of interaction between humans and robots. The project presents a study of process, concept, risk analysis, and simulation of interaction between robot and human where quality management tools have been used in an exemplary manner."
About the Olle Jonson award
The Swedish Association for Quality annually awards a prize of SEK 20 000 for the best essay or degree project in quality and business development. The prize is awarded in memory of Olle Jonson, one of the founders of the Swedish Association of Control Engineers, which later became SFK – the Swedish Association for Quality. The purpose of the award is to support education and research in quality and business development.
Read more
Read more about the Olle Jonson award on SFK’s website (in Swedish)
Supervisor for the degree project
- Senior Lecturer, Engineering Materials, Industrial and Materials Science