A senior design team from the Department of Mechanical Engineering was one of 20 teams from engineering and military colleges invited to participate in the 2014 Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) University Design Challenge . . . and the Auburn team bested the competition with ease.

Students Morgan Allison, John Bissell, Kamaren Braxton, Travis Campbell, Luke Hasha and Matthew Park took first place for their heavy lifting bag system, capable of raising a 45,000-pound armored vehicle. They surpassed competitors including Johns Hopkins University, Purdue University and Texas A&M University.

“The AFRL and a group of special forces created a competition to improve upon current systems and fix issues they are having in the field,” said Bissell, the team’s project manager. “One piece of equipment that operators often use is a heavy lifting bag system, which can be inflated to lift downed vehicles and aid in the recovery of soldiers trapped underneath.”

Understanding that special forces would likely travel while carrying the lifting equipment in the field, the students knew their creation would need to be of a lightweight composite material. With the help of David Beale, professor of mechanical engineering and the team’s adviser, Roy Broughton, professor emeritus of polymer and fiber engineering, and Mike Cahill, military liaison for the College of Engineering, the team decided to work with the material Vectran, the same material that made up the landing bag system for the Mars rovers.

After effortlessly lifting a filled dumpster with their first bag design, the students moved to lifting bigger items. They created larger bags to lift construction equipment, successfully raising an eight-ton bulldozer. “We could not have been blessed with better luck,” Bissell said. “When we drove out to Arnold Air Force Base’s rifle range for the competition, we were ecstatic to see the object that we would be lifting. It was another bulldozer.”