The task of the competition was to develop a 3D-printed, smart and self-sufficient sphere that can record, analyse and transmit its path in space in three dimensions using a sensor system integrated into its interior. The sphere also had to be able to distinguish between rolling and sliding and must not have any imbalance. This means that the centre of gravity of the sphere, including the sensors, circuits, power supply and transmitter and receiver for data transmission, had to be positioned exactly in the centre of the sphere.

A maximum diameter of 12 cm was permitted for all of this. The sphere also had to be stable and withstand a fall from a height of 30 cm onto a stone floor.

To develop the sphere, the team – Simon Dechant, Jan-Gode Pösnecker, Daniel Schmitt from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology (etit) and Simon Emmert, Daniel Heiner Seip from the Department of Mechanical Engineering – had access to the laboratories of Professor Mario Kupnik's Lab of Measurement and Sensor Technology (MUST). They were supervised by the scientists there (Felix Herbst, Professor Mario Kupnik) as well as scientists from the Labs of Product Development and Machine Elements (PMD) (Richard Breimann, Professor Eckhard Kirchner) and Integrated Electronic Systems (IES) (David Riehl, Professor Klaus Hofmann).

The final competition took place in Dresden on 13 May. In an exciting event, all participating groups presented their spheres and demonstrated their function in an obstacle course. The TU Darmstadt team impressed the jury and won the competition. The two other podium places went to RPTU Kaiserslautern, closely followed by TU Munich.

In September, the winning team is invited to present their sphere to a larger audience at the SPP Summer School in Munich and gain further insights into current research in the field of sensor-integrating machine elements.