Margaux Edwards

7.00 AM

My mornings usually start with either the first or third alarm of the morning followed by a notification that breakfast is ready. I detest a cold breakfast so it’s usually the best motivation to get out of bed and get ready for the morning. Mornings are a struggle usually due to the fact that I’ve stayed up late working on projects or attending committee meetings for my international volunteer work.

7.30 AM

My mornings usually consist of me reading up on the news and putting on a podcast to listen to while getting ready. After ironing, getting dressed and doing my hair and makeup, I make sure I don’t leave the house without leftovers from last night’s dinner and most importantly my 16oz keep cup!

8.00 AM

Drives to Rheinmetall at Redbank are quite enjoyable. Either it’s continuing the morning’s podcast (CSIRO’s Everyday AI series has been extremely interesting) or singing my go-to playlist which means that the 30-minute journey goes by effortlessly.

8.30 AM

As I arrive at the office, I’m always greeted by everyone, which is especially nice as I’m working in the Admin building surrounded by extremely busy managers. As long as they’re not on a call, they always say hello. As I approach my usual desk, I am always uncertain if I remembered to book using the Hot Desk system. Good thing I’ve booked the same desk for the next two weeks – no need for the concern!

9.00 AM

I’ve recently moved from Engineering Design to Rheinmetall’s Research and Development which is a smaller team. I log into my dev laptop to check my Gannt chart for updates from my manager and my main laptop for emails. In R&D, many of my tasks are not directly obvious at first as I’m developing ideas, scoping projects and reading and developing solutions to problems. My current work involves building new applications for Rheinmetall’s current autonomous platforms. One of my colleagues is looking at ground vehicles while I’m looking at UAVs.

My manager has asked me to develop a fully autonomous navigation solution in simulation for demonstration in a couple of weeks so I’m straight away booting up my simulator and ready for the day’s coding session.

9.15 AM

This process has been exhausting enough - time for coffee. While the kitchenette’s coffee machine gets lots of use at this time in the morning, everyone who knows me will confirm that I am definitely a coffee connoisseur – only a barista made coffee will suffice!

This is where my 16oz Keep Cup comes in handy as while the Redbank café scene isn’t up to scratch, MILVEHCOE’s canteen has an amazing barista service! As I approach I need only tap my phone knowing that my keep cup discount has been applied. The canteen is often filled with others who are struggling to get going in the morning and, after catching up on the morning’s news with the baristas, I return to my desk awake and ready to go!

9.30 AM

Back at my desk now, simulator loaded, and buds in with music playing I start working on today’s challenge: stopping the UAV from crashing.

10.50 AM

With no UAVs crashing anymore, I start to plan how I’m going to complete my autonomous mission. Today’s problem consists of working on the vision system. I consult my manager about what cameras and specs I should work towards and, with all details confirmed, I dive into the literature and my uni notes on how best to code a solution.

11.00 AM

I usually get to this point in the morning wondering where the morning has gone as I’ve been focused on reading papers, coding and watching copious numbers of tutorials to remember each function or command I need. After once again loading up the files, I find my error and magically everything works.

12.00 PM

A notification on my phone alerts me that everyone is gathering for lunch. This always is a great opportunity to catch up with the other students and graduates working in the other buildings.

Today’s a special lunch as all the students and graduates are gathering for a ‘Lunch and Learn’ where the managers present what their team does in the overall scheme of the company. Today’s session was especially enjoyable as we were able to go over to production and see the systems in action after the presentation.

1.00 PM

The afternoon takes me to the prototype shop to assist in the preparations for our upcoming demonstration. PPE is required for every trip to the production building so I dash down to my car and replace my RMs with my steel cap boots and Hi-Vis vest. It’s always enjoyable to get to go down to the shop and actually apply my robotics skills on actual robotic platforms, rather than just the simulator.

2.00 PM

Time to pull out the UAV to get some measurements for the simulation. We are certainly lucky to work with industry standard equipment to develop our autonomous solutions. Currently, I have been assisting in the debugging of LIDARs for ground vehicles. Turns out it was a faulty connector as is usually the case for prototypes.

3.00 PM

We also get an opportunity to explore the features of the Boxer and Lynx to discover the current capabilities of Rheinmetall’s vehicles. As the aim of R&D is to build upon the current capabilities, it’s always interesting for one of the senior engineers to show off the current designs. Understanding the design process is really interesting, especially knowing how CAD elements are scoped, designed, verified and developed on each of the vehicles.

4.30 PM

Finally back at my desk in the air conditioning and working on documenting my process and solution. As the team is small, we document our errors and commands to assist each other in the debugging process. A quick catch-up with my supervisor and colleagues follows, as well as checking my emails for any updates. Back to coding and improving my solution!

5.30 PM

As the office starts to empty for the day, I’m usually one of the last to leave. After encouragement from some of the others in the office, I leave my debugging for refreshed Margaux in the morning. As I leave the car park, I check the route home all is clear so I know I’ll have plenty of time for relaxing ready for the challenges that tomorrow will bring!

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