Using a simple expert system to assist a powered wheelchair user

A simple expert system is described that helps wheelchair users to drive their wheelchairs. The expert system takes data in from sensors and a joystick, identifies obstacles and then recommends a safe route. Wheelchair users were timed while driving around a variety of routes and using a joystick controlling their wheelchair via the simple expert system. Ultrasonic sensors are used to detect the obstacles. The simple expert system performed better than other recently published systems. In more difficult situations, wheelchair drivers did better when there was help from a sensor system. Wheelchair users completed routes with the sensors and expert system and results are compared with the same users driving without any assistance. The new systems show a significant improvement

Integrating sustainable construction materials to achieve green building

Green buildings integrate building materials and methods that promote environmental quality, economic vitality and social benefits through the design, construction and operation of the built environment. This study demonstrates potential actions including material selection that can be implemented to achieve green building. Also, we discuss the importance and environmental impact of sustainable material, the selection criteria of these materials and the different types of sustainable materials in the buildings construction in Jordan

Communication issues in Large Scale Wireless Ad hoc Networks

Ad-hoc networks are networks that are formed automatically without any pre-existing infrastructure. These networks may consist of various types of mobile devices . such as PDAs, laptops, cell phones and other mobile computing devices. Each node in a wireless ad hoc network performs computational tasks as well as communication routing. Without the existence of dedicated routing devices, the nodes relay traffic to each other to extend their communication range. This paper gives an overview on the current technologies . intelligent agent systems . and their implications to solve common problems in ad hoc networks. We will also introduce our current research directions, and provide a promising analysis to achieve efficient transmissions in a large-scale ad hoc network using multiple channels, an option, which is already in the MAC layer of IEEE 802.11. We will show also that in noisy environments latency reduction in multi-hops is significant to single hop networks even for greater number of relay nodes. The approach described in this paper could be use to develop efficient large-scale ad hoc networks