Behind Closed Doors

Germany is a wonderful country. With our local transit passes supplied by AiB and the international EU Rail pass, almost everywhere in Germany is accessible by public transit. But that’s not to say it’s easy. German trains are infamously terrible. Most of our travels have been incident-free, but that all changed on the trip to Berlin. That trip would prove long and laborious, full of danger and despair. It would prove to much for nearly half the class. Let me tell you what really went down behind closed doors, in Wolfsburg, Germany.

The plan was to meet at 7:40 outside of Bonn central station, take a regional train to Cologne, then a high-speed ICE train to Berlin. About halfway, we would stop at Wolfsburg for a tour of the Volkswagen factory, then hop on another ICE to finish the trip to Berlin. The seats were all reserved, the tour was booked. What could go wrong? (Foreshadowing)

The day started off strong with an hour-long delay, causing us to nearly miss the ICE to Wolfsburg. But for all their issues, the ICEs are very nice trains. And with reserved seats, we got a table all to ourselves for cards, Minecraft, or, if you’re a nerd, homework. AiB sent Amir and Rene to ensure everything went smoothly. They spent their trip tealing with the ticket agents and marching up and down the train announcing what stop was ours. But, alas, not even they were a match for what was to come.

Once we reached our stop, I got off the train at Wolfsburg, where I was met by Prof. Kney and about half the group. As we waited for the other half to get off the train, I had time to admire the area. We were on one side of the river, and on the other sat the Volkswagen factory. An immense brick building, with smokestacks and beyond it a museum. I watched as the conductors walked up and down the train, looking both ways for anyone getting on or off, before finally blowing their whistles. I watched as the train doors closed. I watched as the ICE pulled away from the station, starting slow, then gaining speed. And I watched the look of confusion turn to fear on my classmates’ faces as the train passed me by. With  them still on it. Somehow, someway, half of the group did not get off the train. Including Amir and Rene the actual Germans. So we were now on our own in Wolfsburg, with a factory tour booked and not a clue in the world. Later, the group who stayed on the train made excuses like “the doors didn’t open” Or “there was someone in my way!” But I digress.

The next hour was chaos. Do we take a bus? Do we walk? Is that bus our bus? Where are we walking to? Are we going to the factory, the museum, or the factory museum? Google Maps says one thing, but the locals say another. We decided to drag our luggage across a pedestrian bridge to the Volkswagen museum right next to the factory. Upon arrival, we were politely told that there was no way to get to the factory (which was literally right next door), and we must return to the train station and walk through a special tunnel. After hauling our luggage back across the bridge in the cold, windy weather, we found the tunnel. Once we reached the end, we had to wait for our tour guide while all the morning shift employees clocked out. After the tour guide arrived and the paperwork was finished, we finally began the tour. Just with half the class missing and the other half 45 minutes late.

No pictures were allowed on the tour, so I’ll do my best to describe it. The Volkswagen factory was dope as hell. It felt like I was in IRL Factorio. The outside was a multi-mile-long brick building built in the 1930s. Inside was a multi-floor, highly automated car manufacturing pipeline. Robots attached to gantries to the ceiling rolled by. Carrying doors and car parts everywhich way. Enormous robot arms held the cars in place, as other robotic arms welded the frame and attached doors and other parts. As a robotics major, I was literally drooling over the speed and control the robots demonstrated. I mean, the motors were huge. And think of the bevel gears inside the gearboxes. How often did you have to replace the grease inside? And the way they position the wrist motor down at the elbow to reduce the moment of the end effector, could you route the power all the way down to the base? What if you did a differential motor system where, when the motors turned in tandem, the arm would pivot, and when the motors turned against each other, the arm would rotate. But the control algorithms needed to position a 7-axis of freedom end-effector within a millimeter of error would be nearly impossible. How would you control for backlash? Deflection across the arm? Tolerance stack up? Better to just get a larger motor and stick it on the elbow and route the power to the wrist. Still insanely hard, but technically possible. I wondered how the wrote move commands to the arm. Many times, the cars just scrape under the roof. How many takes before the whole assembly line worked in harmony?

The whole complex produced around 3500 cars per day (that’s a car every 25 seconds). We hopped in the back of a trailer towed by a suped-up VW Golf, and our tour guide drove us through the facility. We saw half-made cars move on tracks overhead and heard sparks from the welding arms, and the whole place smelled like burnt plastic, metal, and motor oil. Yummy. Along the way, the tour guide pointed out holes in the metal girders in the ceiling. Bomb damage from WW2 was still present and visible, hanging over the factory as people worked.

At some point, the tour guide asked if anyone wanted to hop in the car with him as he toured. I said yes, and my friend Drew joined me in the car. We talked about where we’re from, what music we like, what music he likes, any German bands we should listen to, and questions about the factory. If any of our questions were good, he’d repeat them into the microphone for the whole group to hear. It was so cool to pass by the factory workings, putting fuel tanks into the car or tuning engines, and asking any question that came to mind. After the tour, we took a group picture in the VIP car, which was used to give tours to famous people like the Earth, Wind & Fire band and John Legend, to name a few.

Then, if anyone from the other half of the class asks, we passed by a live concert from Beyonce but didn’t have enough time to stick around.

The tour was insanely cool. The tour guide was knowledgable, he had been working at Volkswagen since he apprenticed at 16 and worked in many roles in his career since then.

We ended the tour and got to our train, which was only delayed by half an hour. I enjoyed a pastry from the local bakery. As it turns out, the German word for Cherry (Kirsche) sounds very similar to kölsch (a type of beer). The train arrived, and we had a spacious ride to Berlin. When we arrived, the locals were so delighted that they went on strike and shut down all local transit. So we walked 20 minutes to the hotel. It actually worked out great, as we passed by a broken church. The church was bombed during WWII, and the story our Berlin tour guide shared was that no one cared enough to rebuild it. So it stayed broken and now is a striking monument.

Overall, I learned a lot that day: #1 Robots are cool. #2 Volkswagen is cool, #3 trains only arrive on time when you are late, otherwise they are delayed by atleast 30 minutes, and #4 get off the darn train!

More information on Volkswagen tours: https://www.volkswagen.de/de/marke-und-erlebnis/volkswagen-entdecken/factory-visit.html

https://www.volkswagen-newsroom.com/de/werk-wolfsburg-das-herz-der-marke-vw-6811

-Ian