Development of Power Assist on Omni-Directional Mobile Wheelchair Considering Operationality and Comfort

Abstract

The year 2006 was another busy year for CIIPS with many and varied projects carried out as part of the Centre's active research programme. The Centre also hosted a diverse group of international visitors and scholars in 2006 from Germany, Japan and Korea. The year 2006 also saw some changes and new faces at CIIPS and we welcome our new administrative secretary Ms Linda Barbour and congratulate Dr Terry Woodings on his successful PhD and appointment as an adjunct Associate Professor. The Centre has also maintained its success at attracting a large cohort of finalyear project students involved with projects covering a range of discipline areas in intelligent control, information systems and signal processing. This has been complemented by students from the MEICT and DEICT programme undertaking their dissertation component with CIIPS which is expected to strengthen over the coming years. In 2006 the Centre was also successful in securing a significant industry grant ($130,000) through the ISER Group. Once again 2006 was an uncertain year in terms of undergraduate student numbers entering the discipline. The BE(IT) programme, which has been under annual review in response to decreasing enrolments, was renamed the BE(CE) programme to better reflect its emphasis. Due to efforts of the School's marketing current indications are for a turnaround in numbers across all the programmes offered by the School. Even so, there is expected still to be a drop in the number of final-year project students in 2008 which may affect the Centre. Other challenges to be faced by the Centre over the coming year are consequences arising from the 2006 School review and the renewal of the Centre which is due at the end of 2007. Given the research strength and diversity enjoyed by the Centre it should be well placed to meet the coming challenges and adapt accordingly and ensure that CIIPS continues to play an important role in the IT education of all engineers at UWA and remains a significant partner for research in academia and industry.