Parking assessment in the context of growing construction activity and infrastructure changes : simulation of impact scenarios

This paper investigates the impact of construction activity and associated parking on the overall parking behaviour of a rapidly changing metropolitan city. The study adopted the modelling and simulation of baseline and impact scenarios of increasing demand, changing parking infrastructure and limited on-street parking supply. Results indicate that construction and population growth, as well as limited parking capacities, will have a significant impact on overall parking behaviour. Furthermore, the proximity to the construction site was identified as an important consideration in carpark location choice. These findings suggest that decisions on capacity and locations should be based on critical factors, including the behaviour of various users and loads. This study has implications for policymakers on the provision and selection of parking infrastructure for a range of users. Outcomes of this research have directly influenced the planning framework for the Parramatta Light Rail project, future zoning, and infrastructure development in Parramatta. These findings can be used for recommendations on developing travel demand management (TDM) strategies for various stakeholders, depending on the context of parking demand, supply, and future changes. However, the study is limited to surveys of actual parking demand without considering latent demand during the peak period of the day

Implementation of the biological muscle mechanism in HASEL actuators to leverage electrohydraulic principles and create new geometries

Biomimicry is a field of research that uses the functional and structural components of nature, at macroscopic and microscopic scales, to inspire solutions to problems in our industrial world. Soft robotics is an area of research that uses biomimicry, in this case, mimicking skeletal muscles (referred to in this field as “muscle-mimicking actuators”, to perform task of high difficulty, that can be operated in a harmlessly in different environments. One of the most recent advancements to develop from this field is the “Hydraulically amplified self-healing electrostatics (HASEL) actuator”. However, this method also brings many of the issues associated with the geometry of its design, especially with respect to the efficiency of the system. Though this system mimics the functionality of the skeletal muscle, there is room to adjust the existing electrostatic mechanisms, that distribute the locally produced force, to mimic the structure of the mechanism that distributes the force to the skeletal muscular, which is also locally produced. In this paper, we show that the current electrostatic parallel electrodes, as well as the zipping mechanisms, can be replaced with the sliding mechanism. This eliminates issues associated with compartmentalizing of the primary electrostatic force and the secondary hydraulic forces leading to a more efficient and controlled transmission electrostatic and hydrostatic forces to the load compared to current iterations and their geometric components

Wearable bluetooth triage healthcare monitoring system

Triage is the first interaction between a patient and a nurse/paramedic. This assessment, usually performed at Emergency departments, is a highly dynamic process and there are international grading systems that according to the patient condition initiate the patient journey. Triage requires an initial rapid assessment followed by routine checks of the patients’ vitals, including respiratory rate, temperature, and pulse rate. Ideally, these checks should be performed continuously and remotely to reduce the workload on triage nurses; optimizing tools and monitoring systems can be introduced and include a wearable patient monitoring system that is not at the expense of the patient’s comfort and can be remotely monitored through wireless connectivity. In this study, we assessed the suitability of a small ceramic piezoelectric disk submerged in a skin-safe silicone dome that enhances contact with skin, to detect wirelessly both respiration and cardiac events at several positions on the human body. For the purposes of this evaluation, we fitted the sensor with a respiratory belt as well as a single lead ECG, all acquired simultaneously. To complete Triage parameter collection, we also included a medical-grade contact thermometer. Performances of cardiac and respiratory events detection were assessed. The instantaneous heart and respiratory rates provided by the proposed sensor, the ECG and the respiratory belt were compared via statistical analyses. In all considered sensor positions, very high performances were achieved for the detection of both cardiac and respiratory events, except for the wrist, which provided lower performances for respiratory rates. These promising yet preliminary results suggest the proposed wireless sensor could be used as a wearable, hands-free monitoring device for triage assessment within emergency departments. Further tests are foreseen to assess sensor performances in real operating environments

Real-time EMG based pattern recognition control for hand prostheses : a review on existing methods, challenges and future implementation

Upper limb amputation is a condition that significantly restricts the amputees from performing their daily activities. The myoelectric prosthesis, using signals from residual stump muscles, is aimed at restoring the function of such lost limbs seamlessly. Unfortunately, the acquisition and use of such myosignals are cumbersome and complicated. Furthermore, once acquired, it usually requires heavy computational power to turn it into a user control signal. Its transition to a practical prosthesis solution is still being challenged by various factors particularly those related to the fact that each amputee has different mobility, muscle contraction forces, limb positional variations and electrode placements. Thus, a solution that can adapt or otherwise tailor itself to each individual is required for maximum utility across amputees. Modified machine learning schemes for pattern recognition have the potential to significantly reduce the factors (movement of users and contraction of the muscle) affecting the traditional electromyography (EMG)-pattern recognition methods. Although recent developments of intelligent pattern recognition techniques could discriminate multiple degrees of freedom with high-level accuracy, their efficiency level was less accessible and revealed in real-world (amputee) applications. This review paper examined the suitability of upper limb prosthesis (ULP) inventions in the healthcare sector from their technical control perspective. More focus was given to the review of real-world applications and the use of pattern recognition control on amputees. We first reviewed the overall structure of pattern recognition schemes for myo-control prosthetic systems and then discussed their real-time use on amputee upper limbs. Finally, we concluded the paper with a discussion of the existing challenges and future research recommendations

Mature age students in first year engineering

Mature age students comprise a significant portion of the first year engineering in-take at the University of Western Sydney (UWS). More than 30% of the undergraduate engineering students in UWS are classified as mature age students. Some lecturers in first-year teaching units have an impression that mature age students are committed, resilient and perform better in their studies while tutors in some first year units observed that mature age students tend to struggle in areas such as programming, mathematics and basic sciences. Also as mentioned in a number of different studies, mature age students tend to have many challenges that typical school leavers do not face; having to support themselves and their families through part-time or full-time work and lack of continuity in their formal studies are two of the key factors (De Silva et al. 2012; Tones et. al. 2009)

Barriers in acceptance of ambient assisted living technologies among older Australians

One of the great challenges facing Australian society is the ageing population. Amongst various issues involved in this drastic demographic change, the most significant aspect is the demand for older Australians to be able to live independently at home. One of the things done to address these issues is the development of Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) technologies. However, the optimum uptake of these technologies among the end-users (the elderly Australians) still remains a big concern. This aim of this study is to investigate the barriers and perceptions in the use of AAL applications amongst older Australians. Focus groups, and quantitative surveys have been conducted to provide the detailed analysis of these impediments. The results show that there are different factors that restrict the use of these technologies and elderly people have certain preferences when using the technology. An understanding of these barriers is gained to provide solutions according to user needs

An investigation into project based learning (PBL) in telecommunications

This study investigates the effectiveness of introducing project-based learning (PBL) in addition to traditional lectures, tutorials and laboratories, in helping electrical engineering students engage with contemporary industry issues and meet or exceed learning targets in a telecommunication subject within an Engineers Australia accredited curriculum. It was found that student feedback related to learning design, learning flexibility and assessments in particular improved when PBL is included

Parramatta Travel Demand Management (TDM): Construction Activities: Final Report

The scale and pace of private and public construction in Parramatta CBD presents challenges in the management of the transport network. Construction activity generated by these developments will introduce a significant number of both light and heavy vehicles to the local network which will place further stress on on-street and off-street parking capacity in Parramatta CBD. Transport for NSW (TfNSW) observed a substantial number of construction workers rightly using off-street carparks in Parramatta CBD whilst working on nearby building sites. However, the same carparks are earmarked for redevelopment for public projects. For example, Horwood Place carpark will be closed to make way for a Sydney Metro West station and the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences is earmarked for development where Riverbank carpark presently sits. These development projects will continue to attract a large number of workers, yet construction will consume off-street locations where these workers can park. This raises concerns of what the impact of parking could be on limited on-street resources if off-street parking provisions are no longer available. The objective of this research is to assess the potential transport (parking) impact of ongoing high demand from construction workers for all-day parking and limited future off-street parking supply

Power allocation in DF relay assisted OFDM cognitive radio networks with outdated CSI

In this paper, we investigate power allocation in decode-and-forward (DF) relay assisted OFDM cognitive radio (CR) networks. The objective is to maximize the instantaneous capacity of the CR system. Due to channel feedback delay, the available channel state information (CSI) between the secondary and primary users is considered as an outdated but correlated version of the actual instantaneous CSI. An optimal power allocation scheme is presented assuming that the primary users are subject to average interference constraints and the CR transmitters are subject to maximum transmit power constraint. In addition, a suboptimal scheme with reduced complexity is also proposed. Numerical results confirm that the proposed suboptimal power allocation scheme can be used as a less complex alternative for optimal power allocation with some degradation in capacity

Tighter performance upper bounds for terminated convolutional codes in Rayleigh fading channels

In this paper, we present tighter performance upper bounds for terminated convolutional codes over Rayleigh fading channels with BPSK and QPSK modulation. The performance upper bounds for convolutional codes are generally obtained from the union bound derived from the transfer function. This bound is quite loose for a terminated trellis. In the literature, performance bounds for terminated convolutional codes with BPSK in AWGN environment have been derived using a new weight enumerator obtained from a modified trellis diagram. In this work, we use the modified trellis approach to derive the weight enumerators for rate 1/2 terminated convolutional codes with QPSK modulation and derive tighter upper bounds using that