Home

Events

Projects

Sponsors

Downloads

Contacts

Student Name(s): Daniel Ghantous

Supervisor: Ahmad Zahedi

Project Description:

Student Name(s): Elia Ly

Supervisor: Ahmad Zahedi

Project Description:

Student Name(s): Madika Senaratne

Supervisor: Ahmad Zahedi

Project Description:

Student Name(s): Ka On Ying

Supervisor: Ahmad Zahedi

Project Description:

Student Name(s): Wai Ling Law

Supervisor:  Ahmad Zahedi

Project Description:

This project is about design, build and test of an integrated solar PV solar thermal. As silicon solar cells have negative temperature coefficient, so their output power decreases as temperature increases. Adding a cooling system at the back a solar panel, effieciency of solar PV panel will increases and hot water as by-product is produced.

Student Name(s): Siew Ping Ting, Guan Wah Wong

Supervisor:  Ahmad Zahedi

Project Description:

Student Name(s): Mei Hui Goh, Maria Fran Tan, 

                          Andrew Bayly

Supervisor:  Ahmad Zahedi

Project Description:

The aim of this project is to evaluate the environmental impacts of energy alternatives.

Student Name(s): Erik Kam

Supervisor:  Ahmad Zahedi

Project Description:

Origin Energy has sponsored the Monash's Solar Photovoltaic Energy System which has been installed on the roof of new Engineering building. This Grid-Connected system is generating electricity that is fed into utility network. The purpose of this project is to develop a methodology for computer simulation of the system for generatinge simulation results and compare these results with actual output power generated by the system. A further objective is to suggest adjustment need to be applied to the simulation method for obtaining a good matching between the theoretical and experimental data.

Student Name(s): Luke Anthony Robinson

Supervisor: Donald Holmes

Project Description:

Design, simulate and construct a microprocessor controlled microhydro generation system to control an induction motor to achieve a constant voltage, constant frequency AC supply under variable load conditions.

Student Name(s): Tony Bertes

Supervisor: Donald Holmes

Project Description:

Design, simulate and construct a microprocessor controller to interface to a laboratory DC drive/motor system to give it the performance characteristics of a small wind turbine operating under a variable wind regime.

Student Name(s): Andrew Bayly

Supervisor: Donald Holmes

Project Description:

Designing the heatsink of a solar power converter is challenging at the best of times, particularly when the air flow is forced through the heatsink using a fan. The aim of this project is to use Finite Element Analysis software to determine the performance of naturally convected and forced air heatsinks for a solar power converter, and then to verify their predicted performance experimentally.

Student Name(s): Kwok Wai Cheung

Supervisor: Ahmad Zahedi

Project Description:

The objective of this project is to design, computer simulation, performance prediction of a car, which uses fuel cell for running its motor.

Student Name(s): Shu Han

Supervisor: Ahmad Zahedi

Project Description:

The aim of this project is to investigate the influence of nanotechnology in developing smaller and faster supercapacitors to achieve higher power density, higher energy density and lower cost of supercapacitors.

Student Name(s): Phona Tess Distajo, Ivan

Supervisor: Ahmad Zahedi

Project Description:

The objectives of this project is to design a solar PV powered air condition for use in family cars. Students are required to design the entire system and for optimum sizing they need to perform the system's computer simulation. Before building the system, they need to predict the performance of the system for Melbourne climate. After the system was build students need to test the system for the purpose of comparing the theoretical results with experimental results for necessary adjustments.

Student Name(s): Judd Owen Wilkinson

Supervisor: Francesco Crusca

Project Description:

There is some research activity currently into developing a robot for automated trading in financial markets. Your task will be to develop such a robot (or algorithm) based on a set of historical data, and then test the algorithm on real-time data. You may use any number of approaches, for example, if you use path-planning algorithms used in conventional industrial type robots then you simply need to replace the search for the best path with the search for the best price trajectory.

Student Name(s): Devinka Ni Wadumesti,

                          Michael Ro Butas, Philip Nes Lascaris

Supervisor: Francesco Crusca

Project Description:

Student Name(s): Alex Chen

Supervisor: Francesco Crusca

Project Description:

The goal of a technical analyst is supposedly to use past information on price to predict future information. This rather difficult problem has been approached in a whole host of ways over the past 100 years. In this project you will be given data and your task will be to compare and contrast various neural net approaches to price prediction. You will monitor and report on performance of your predictors over a given time period. This is project is suited to BCom/BE students with a good programming and fair mathematical background.

Student Name(s): Anna Kossovskaia

Supervisor: Francesco Crusca

Project Description:

Jointly supervised by Assoc Prof R Rajan Dept of Physiology Monash University Contact: ramesh.rajan@med.monash.edu.au and Dr Crusca Title: Designing a system to study the factors that influence scene analysis in an auditory discrimination task and in auditory discrimination learning. Background: The auditory system provides us with a 3-dimensional view of the world, covering areas around us that cannot be immediately accessed with vision.. The information conveyed through sound is well preserved even after bending round objects but this is not the case for light. Thus light is used to detect the shapes and features of objects but sound is used to verify the existence of objects. The major task for the human auditory system is to segregate a target sound from the rich mix of many sounds in our daily life without any help from other senses. This integration of sounds or sound components that occur simultaneously or sequentially is a process that is described as �auditory streaming�. (Note that streaming here, as is evident from the discussion, is used in a different sense to the term streaming in IT or engineering.) Auditory streaming depends on grouping together sound components with similar spectral, temporal or intensity characteristics. Because it allows our brains to identify and process one particular signal as opposed to others, or to process a target signal from background noise, it is critical in the development of our auditory brain and our language communication skills. Indeed, it has been hypothesized that deficits in the ability to stream auditory information is responsible for a deficit in children known as �Central Auditory Processing Disorder� which leads to impairments in learning language and therefore in school performance. This deficit in streaming is not exclusive to hearing and a similar deficit in visual streaming has been hypothesized to underlie some forms of dyslexia (developmental dyslexia). Thus our ability to �stream� sensory stimuli based on a number of characteristics is critical to our development as competent fully-functional human beings. Project: Given this background we wish to develop a psychophysical system that allows us to study how factors important for auditory streaming actually influence human performance in a practical, everyday task � that of discriminating speech from background noise. The psychophysical system will be developed using MatLab and, in broad outline, will have to carry out the following tasks: (a) present a background noise masker (that can be selected from a range of maskers already available as well as to be developed) (b) present a target sentence simultaneously at a determined time and for a determined period of time (c) allow the logging of the response to the target sentence (d) repeat the process for a specified number of times with different target sentences (e) either present the background noise at a fixed level for the duration of the test or else to vary, in a precisely defined way, the background noise intensity of timing from one sentence to the next. In carrying out these broad tasks, the system must have the following features to allow testing of the influence of intensity, timing and spectral factors that are critical to auditory scene analysis: (a) be able to present the background noise to a pair of headphones with pre-specified differences in intensities in the two ears (b) be able, starting with a fixed differences in intensities in the two ears, to vary the intensities of the background noise in precisely specified ways from one sentence to the next (c) be able to present the sentences with pre-specified differences in intensities in the two ears (d) be able to present the sentences with pre-specified differences in the timing at which the sentences start in the two ears (e) be able to actively frequency modulate the background noise dynamically to create a percept of a moving noise source (f) allow spectral filtering to null out select frequency regions in either the background noise or in the sentences. Time lines: It is expected that the project will commence at the start of Semester 1, 2006. Our experience with such projects is that it will take a period of 2 months for a student to familiarize themselves with the literature in the field and with another 2 months to familiarize themselves with the auditory-specific concepts involved in the project. The system development, which can commence concurrent with the second stage of familiarization noted above, will occupy the last part of Semester 1 and is expected to last until mid-September. Then, concurrent with the thesis writing, there will be a period lasting till early October where the system will be validated by testing in subjects. At this stage it is envisaged that testing will only be done on normal subjects as the ethics approval to test in subjects with hearing or other impairments requires that first stage of validation before approval can be provided.

Student Name(s): Daniel Mar Jenkinson, 

                          Mike Kevin Nobin

Supervisor: Francesco Crusca

Project Description:

In the Control & MI lab B72/Rm 136 there is a scaled-down model of an industrial automation system with conveyor belts, pnumatic sensors, and pick and place operation. In 2005 the unit was retrofitted with a modern Siemens S7-300 PLC and touch panel, and basic functionality was achieved. This year the task is to optimise the perfomance and reduce cycle times. It would suit a group of one or 2 students.

Student Name(s): Cynthia An Suminto

Supervisor: Francesco Crusca

Project Description:

***This project is reserved for Cynthia Suminto"*** - DESIGN A PLC BASEDCONTROL SYSTEM FOR REFRIGERATION UNITS USING TWO CONDENSING UNITS (COMPRESSOR) IN ONE UNIT COLD ROOM

Student Name(s): Krzysztof Stachowicz

Supervisor: Francesco Crusca

Project Description:

Student Name(s): Richard Jo Watson

Supervisor: Francesco Crusca

Project Description:

In real-time computer control applications the core problem involves maintaining the performance of a dynamical system through appropriate use of compensation and feedback. At a supervisory level the problem becomes to ensure that if and when a certain fault occurs on the system to be controlled that the resulting performance degradation is not too severe. Here the use of fault detection filters is becoming an chanllenging new research area with potential applications in industry. Your task will be to develop fault detection filters for a given process and to investigate their effect on system performance by simulation using tools such as Matlab and or Labview. You will need to have a good mathematical background to tackle this problem.

Student Name(s): Andrew Ogdin 

Supervisor: Ming Liu

Project Description:

An experienced human pilot on the ground usually can control the flight of robot aircraft much better than an onboard autopilot which hasn�t been well tuned. Therefore, to find out the �transfer function� of a skillful human pilot can be a first step to design an autopilot without aircraft modeling. This project is aimed at identifying the dynamic behavior (or transfer function) of a skillful human autopilot for the trimmed flight of robot aircraft. The identification will be done based on a large amount of flight data collected by the onboard controller of our robot aircraft. The major tool is the MATLAB System identification, Control, Fuzzy logic control tool boxes and Simulink. The outcome of your work will be a high performance robot craft controller algorithm.

Student Name(s):  Kit Ho Ho, Christian Hidayat, 

                           Qasim Wirk

Supervisor:  Ming Liu

Project Description:

Active noise control has been a popular research topic for long time. The examples were vibration damping, noise reduction and engine sound control in airplanes and other noise environment. The general idea is to measure the noise and, at the same time, to generate a sound signal with opposite phase using feedback and feed forward control to reduce the noise. This project is to identify the state-of-art of noise control, to undertake simulation study and to develop a simple prototype. Signal processing knowledge is needed and DSP real-time programming and C coding are essential for the success of the project.

Student Name(s):  Christian Hidayat, Qasim Wirk

Supervisor:  Jingxin Zhang

Project Description:

Active noise control has been a popular research topic for long time. The examples were vibration damping, noise reduction and engine sound control in airplanes and other noise environment. The general idea is to measure the noise and, at the same time, to generate a sound signal with opposite phase using feedback and feed forward control to reduce the noise. This project is to identify the state-of-art of noise control, to undertake simulation study and to develop a simple prototype. Signal processing knowledge is needed and DSP real-time programming and C coding are essential for the success of the project.

Student Name(s): Sut Ian Ho, Kwok Pan Ng,

                         Yie Loon Chia, Lik Wei Lee

                         Jia Jinn Chow, Kah Hoe Low

                         David John Clements 

Supervisor:  Ming Liu

Project Description:

The autonomous micro-helicopter has become a popular research topic for many applications such as tracking, sensing, and surveillance. In this project, it is to develop a micro-robot-helicopter integrated with micro-vision system which can detect and track the moving target on ground in an indoor environment. The output signal of the vision system, being the relative position and velocity of the moving target, should be given to on board controller to fly the helicopter to tracking the moving target. Anther task is to make autonomous landing to a fix land mark or on the top of a moving target.

Student Name(s):  Jinghua Liang

Supervisor:  Ming Liu

Project Description:

This project is to further improve the performance of a prototype of a vision based traffic monitoring system developed in our lab. The system developed, using the low cost web camera and standalone PC, has the basic functions of detecting the presence of vehicles on road, counting their number, detecting their speed, and real-time traffic data collection. However, the reliability of the system drops when traffic flow increases and the lighting condition varies. This project is aimed at enhancing the robustness of the system by means of upgrading the current machine vision algorithms, introducing more advanced functions and improving its tracking capability. The skill of C programming is needed in Windows environment.

Student Name(s): Bandar Ahm Alomran

Supervisor:  Ming Liu

Project Description:

For the development of unmanned robot aircrafts, the preliminary task is to develop the effective autopilot for the autonomous flight of the aircrafts. The first step, however, is to model the motion equation (transfer functions) of the airplanes. In this project, for the real-time flight data obtained, it is to model one or two robot aircrafts using MATLAB�s System Identification and Control Tool Box. The outcome should be effective dynamic model which can be used for autopilot controller parameter tuning. You will learn basic system identification theory and techniques and become an expert f MATLAB. Based on the outcome of your work, you may also need to reprogram the autopilot of our robot aircraft to witness the improved flight performance

Student Name(s): Pascal Wil Su, Man Hey Chan, Jia 

                          Andy Jia

Supervisor: Robin Lisner

Project Description:

[BEng project: 3 students] Microcontroller-Based Access Control Unit. Students involved in this project will be engaged in developing a stand-alone controller, which will allow authorised users to have controlled access to commercial equipment or domestic appliances in the following manner: (1) The objective is to allow identified persons to have access to, for example, an item of office equipment (e.g. photocopier) only during specified hours (eg 8:00 am to 6:00 pm), on specified days (eg Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday as an example). (2) It may be further desired to allow the authorised user to have access to the designated equipment for a grand total of not more than, for example, three hours during any one week. (3) This access would be controlled by a small module containing a microcontroller. (4) Authorised users would gain access by keying in their allocated PIN number. (5) Details of authorised users, permitted hours, etc would be entered by an administrator through a PC using a simple serial or USB link to the control unit. Any changes would also be entered using the PC. The person authorised to enter new details and make changes would use a password to gain entry to the system. (6) It is envisaged that this project would involve three students, with the responsibilities divided along the following lines: Student-A: Software development for the microcontroller-based unit. Student-B: Hardware interfacing for the microcontroller-based unit, and serial/USB communication to the PC. Student-C: Software development for the PC-resident supervisory control and updating system.

Student Name(s): Denny Soosanto, Han Chew Kho,

                          Darren Wei Liew, Welly Widjaja,

                         Ferry Limardi, Malaka Weerathunga

Supervisor: Robin Lisner

Project Description:

[BEng project: 3 students]. Development of custom Profibus device. This project involves the creation of a custom Profibus-compatible industrial control device, which will talk to any Profibus controller. The test-bed for this device will be the Siemens control panel in the Control Laboratory. The project will utilise a generic Profibus interface module which incorporates the correct serial interface hardware for linking to industry-standard Profibus controllers. The device to be controlled will be a remote speed-controlled air pump with airflow sensing. This will involve a bidirectional flow of control information. The project will be suitable for three students, with each student taking on one of the following three tasks: 1. Interpreting the generic Profibus interface module protocols, programming the module, and GSD file creation (this is a critical definition file in which the properties of the newly-developed custom Profibus device must be precisely defined) 2. Microcontroller hardware and programming 3. Programming of S7 PLC system to communicate with the custom device, involvement in GSD file creation and interpretation, and full testing of complete system. There will be a need for all team members to properly understand the precise nature of the messaging structure inherent in the Profibus system. This project will be well-suited to students with an interest in working in the field of industrial automation.

Student Name(s): Alex Gunawan, Weng Yew Chong,

                          Han Cheong Woo, David Ian Routley,

                          Anthony Norton

Supervisor: Robin Lisner

Project Description:

[BEng project]. This project involves the design, simulation and construction for a system to suspend a steel ball at a preset distance below a magnetic levitation coil. The system will utilize position feedback as part of the process. It is intended that the control would be implemented using a microcontroller. This project will be suitable for students with a good level of understanding and interest in the area of control systems. The �plant� (the electromagnetic system) will be highly non-linear in nature, and stabilizing the system will be one of the major challenges. Of key interest will be the response of the system in the presence of disturbances. This project is suitable for two students: one student would concentrate on the electromechanical aspects, position feedback sensor and interfacing; while the second student could concentrate on the exploration of different control strategies and programming these into the microcontroller.

Student Name(s): Runyi Chia, Kok Keng Tan

Supervisor: Robin Lisner

Project Description:

[BEng project]. Design and construction of a driver-pedal interface for electric vehicles. One of the challenges in making electric vehicles driver-friendly is the issue of giving the driver a familiar set of controls to work with. It is also desirable that the feel and response of the vehicle should be similar to that of traditional vehicles, so as to ease the (eventual) transition to electric or (hybrid or fuel-cell) vehicles. This project involves the development of a microcontroller-based torque-command interface, which converts the accelerator pedal �command� from the driver into a torque command signal to the vehicle�s variable-speed drive controller. The algorithm will utilize experimental data collected from a petrol-driven vehicle under a wide range of operating conditions. The project is suitable for a team of two students; one student focusing on the hardware platform and the other student developing software.

Student Name(s): Jun Hui Teo, Yan Jee Too, 

                          Siew Loon Kwong, Shu Hwa Liau,

                          Wee Kee Leong, Ab Halim Wahab

Supervisor: Robin Lisner

Project Description:

[BEng project: 3 students] Magnetically Levitated Model Train. Magnetically levitated high-speed rail transport has finally become a reality, with the very first commercial systems now being commissioned. The advantages offered by magnetically levitated rail transport include the potential for very high speed travel, and smooth ride. This project is aimed at designing and building a model magnetically levitated train, with magnetic levitation (lifting force) and magnetic propulsion. It is proposed that this project be undertaken by a group of three students, allowing each student to focus on one of the three key areas in this project, namely: control, electromagnetic actuation/hardware, and software/simulation.

Student Name(s): Woo Teck Ang

Supervisor: Robin Lisner

Project Description:

Student Name(s): Gregory Tan, Andrew Lau

Supervisor: Tadeusz Czaszejko 

Project Description:

The existing high voltage AC and impulse test control panel is equipped with analogue displays and controls. The project requires that the control panel is converted to a digital, computer controlled system. This is a very practical, hands on, hardware oriented project although programing skills to design graphical user interface to drive the panel will be necessary. Can be suitable for two students if the topic is divided into hardware and software parts.

Student Name(s): Zhenling J Li

Supervisor: Donald Holmes

Project Description:

Student Name(s): Hok Wing Pang

Supervisor: Francesco Crusca

Project Description:

Student Name(s): Dinesh Sek Segaran

Supervisor: Francesco Crusca

Project Description:

Student Name(s): Terence C Teh, Dominic S Wong, 

                          Haohang Zheng

Supervisor: Jingxin Zhang

Project Description:

Student Name(s): Carolyn Tiet                    

Supervisor: David Morgan

Project Description:

Cerebral autoregulation is a process whereby blood flow to the brain is regulated against changes in arterial pressure. It is achieved principally by modulation of the cross-sectional area of cerebral blood vessels and is vitally important since it ensures adequate delivery of oxygen to the cerebral tissues even when the arterial pressure falls dramatically as it may during apnea for example. Failure of autoregulation in preterm infants has been associated with adverse outcome or even increased morbidity but as yet a method for assessing the effectiveness of autoregulation is not available. Accordingly, in this project we aim to develop methods that will allow a quantitative assessment of the efficiency of autoregulation by developing novel frequency and time domain techniques to determine the degree of correlation between fluctuations in arterial pressure and cerebral blood flow. Our ultimate aim is to provide a non-invasive measurement of autoregulation efficiency that can be used clinically. Project Suggestions: Introduction � Review the physiology of cerebral autoregulation in infants and adults. � Review current literature on autoregulation in preterm infants. � Understand current proposed methods for assessing the efficiency of autoregulation. These methods apply Coherence Analysis to determine the correlation between fluctuations in mean arterial pressure (MAP) and cerebral blood flow (CBF) as a function of the frequency of those fluctuations. Project Aims and Outcomes � Literature review of cerebral autoregulation and the mathematics of coherence measurements � Develop a Matlab program for performing coherence analysis of MAP and CBF (HBD) data. Establish the statistical stability of coherence estimates. � Develop a mathematical model of cerebral autoregulation that can be used to determine the efficiency of autoregulation. � Apply these techniques to real data.

Student Name(s): Praveen Santhanaeswarara, 

                          Patrick K Yau

Supervisor: Thomas Brown

Project Description:

Student Name(s): Justin Lim

Supervisor: Thomas Brown

Project Description:

Video tracking for logging wheelchair activity - portable video capture and analysis for determing the activity/environment fo wheelchair use.

Student Name(s): Chuong Van Nguyen,Mao Hong Cheng

Supervisor: Thomas Brown

Project Description:

Wheel chair patients often have few options for controlling their mobility. In this project we will investigate the possibility of using :- 1. The two shoulders to control a motorized wheelchair. 2. The Head, to control a motorized wheel chair. These projects will involve a combination of microcontroller and robit technology concepts, such as obstical avoidance, and assisted navigation.

Student Name(s): Sittichok Teppaitoon

Supervisor: Thomas Brown

Project Description:

Student Name(s): Tien Dong Nguyen

Supervisor: Thomas Brown

Project Description:

Development of a measurement system for measuring the votal signs of 1. Defence staff, soldiers. 2. Fire fighters. 3. Athletes under stress. This is a group project with suboroject dealing with sensor, telecommunications and signal processing aspects.

Student Name(s): Eric Adriel

Supervisor: Thomas Brown

Project Description:

Student Name(s): Peter Otto Lutz

Supervisor: Thomas Brown

Project Description:

Student Name(s): Azadeh Rahavi, Anoma Abeysinghe,

                          Piyarach Hassarungsri, John Dour

Supervisor: Thomas Brown

Project Description:

A project to monitor the physiology has generated a large amount of data relating the physiological parameters of SCI patients during activity. In order to interpret this data we need to use the MATLAB biomed library. This project requires a B Sc/BE student with a good knowledge of human respiratory and cardiovascular physiology. We wish to correlate the physiology (cardio vascular and respiratory) to activity and performance. We also wish to look for changes over the period of rehab. This project will also involve working with Compumedics the company that has developed the portable monitoring equipment that we are using.

Student Name(s): Allan Kha Ng

Supervisor: David Morgan

Project Description:

Student Name(s): Vakul Aggarwat

Supervisor: David Morgan

Project Description:

Student Name(s): Amber Garrett

Supervisor: Brian Lithgow

Project Description:

To use an electrovestibulogram (EVestG) measurement to generate an (summing potential/action potential (Sp/Ap) ratio to diagnose seperately Menieres disease and BPP Vertigo. Ideally have some signal processing and physiology knowledge. Suitable for Masters and Undergraduate.

Student Name(s): Elisha Thomas

Supervisor: Thomas Brown

Project Description:

Portable remote monitoring force platform for a prosthesis. - the re-building of the small force plate (button load cells) that can be fitted into an artificial limb, and inclde some on board amplifiers and storage.

Student Name(s): Yang Li

Supervisor: David Morgan

Project Description:

Student Name(s): Ben Xu

Supervisor: David Morgan

Project Description:

Student Name(s): Dan Thomas

Supervisor: Terry Cornall

Project Description:

Student Name(s): Dinia Marinka

Supervisor: Jaunty Ho

Project Description:

Technical analysis on the performance of financial markets has received huge attention in recent years. Engineers have started to play a more significant role in designing models and trading schemes using many existing engineering tools such as pattern recognition, machine learning, filtering technique, wavelet analysis, system and control, etc. In this project, you will build a model to analyse and predict the performance of a financial market using many of the existing engineering models. You must enjoy and have received good grades in mathematics, statistics, signals and systems, information transmission, control and programming units. A background in finance is useful but not essential.

Student Name(s): Shung Tze Wong, Kaye Susan

                          Morgan, Pei Chea Tan

Supervisor: Jingxin Zhang

Project Description:

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) has the unique ability in generating images of soft tissue and organs. It has significantly improved the clinical diagnosis since its invention in 1970s. Dynamic MRI creates a sequence of MR images over time and is used in clinic and medical research to observe the temporal changes of soft tissue and organs. However, due to the fundamental limits of the current MRI technology, the quality (resolution) of dynamic MRI is not high which has hindered its practical applications. This project will use the superresolution techniques to process dynamic MRI, which will dramatically enhance the quality (resolution) of dynamic MRI, especially when only a small Field of View (FOV) is interested. The project tasks include MATLAB programming and performance evaluation of different superresolution algorithms.

Student Name(s): Timothy Da Comport

Supervisor: Terry Cornall

Project Description:

Take an existing Monash Mouse maze-solving robot design, and add a CMUCAM vision processing system. Implement maze solution strategies using video information. Design and implement wireless comms to base station to display video and navigational information. Investigate active and passive vision strategies.

Student Name(s): Meng Ken Ung, Chu Ming Tang, 

                          Daniel Wal Newmarch 

Supervisor: Lindsay Kleeman

Project Description:

This project builds on ideas outlined in the ECE3704 real time software project. Performance in ECE3704 will be taken into account in selecting students for this project. The emphasis on the project is to develop a real time networked game that has a client server structure running under Linux. The server implements the rules of the game and multiple automated clients attach to the server and compete against each other across a network under varying levels of congestion. The project will be run with at least two students and will involve a degree of cooperation in the development, specification and testing of the rules of the game and the server software. There will also be a competitive element whereby individual�s clients compete against each other for supremacy. That is the clients will be developed independently by each student in this project. In this project each client will represent just one player in a team and communication between players will be only be only possible through the server.

Student Name(s): Robert Alan Jarvis

Supervisor: Lindsay Kleeman

Project Description:

Sonar sensors transmit ultrasound and extract the range from half the time of flight by the speed of sound. Pulse-echo sonar systems use a short pulse and wait for the received pulse or echo. CTFM uses continuous transmission of chirped signals and use the frequency difference between the echo and transmitted chirp to measure range. Greater signal to noise ratio is possible with CTFM. This project aims to design and implement a basic CTFM sonar system using an existing tweeter and power amplifier in the Sonar Robotics Lab and perform signal generation and processing on an FPGA to extract target ranges. A transmitter frequency range of 40 to 80 kHz is anticipated.

Student Name(s): Thomas Con Werner, Aribowo

Supervisor: Ian Kaminskyji

Project Description:With the advent of MP3 music compression algorithm, there has been a lot of interest developed in the efficient encoding/compression of music. This topic entails studying the current competing music encoding schemes and seeing if these could be improved in any way.

Student Name(s): Stephen Patterson, Daniel Vogrig,

                          Jian Aun Thai, Chuang Sen Yap

Supervisor: Ian Kaminskyji

Project Description:

In 2005, two alternative guitar playing robots were designed and built by two thesis project groups. Although significant progress was made, there exists many areas of improvement. In 2006, students are being sought to enhance the 2005 prototypes in a variety of different.

Student Name(s): Wung Joo Song

Supervisor: Ian Kaminskyji

Project Description:

A system has been developed which automatically recognises the source of monophonic musical instruments sounds. There exist however many areas for improvement of system performance. Individual and/or groups of students are sought to tackle one or more of the following enhancements: (a) improved system performance in terms of accuracy and reliability of instrument recognition, (b) real-time performance, as the system currently operates on an off-line manner, (c) WWW site implementation, so as to allow other researchers to access the system remotely, (d) provide finer levels of discrimination, so to allow specific types of each instruments to be identified (eg. different types of pianos), rather than just a generic piano class, (e) expanded levels of performance, in terms of handling continuous music, noise degraded music, as well as polyphonic music.

Student Name(s): David Blom, Thomas De Mc Donnell, 

                           Alexandros Edthimiadis, Vuth So,

                           Neil Nichols

Supervisor: Ian Kaminskyji

Project Description:

This topic will explore the creation of a series of Animations & Simulations to help in teaching students studying Engineering & Computing as well as in research. The tools to be used include WWW development tools, Java programming tools, Visual Studio .NET, Excel, Labview, PSpice & Schematic Capture tools.

Student Name(s): Mohammad Hossain, Kumlachew 

                          Bisrat, Isuru Malewana, Frehiwot 

                          Berhanu, Buddhikuma Hupputha, Chiu

                          Ho Ke Cheung, Duy Nguyen, 

                          Vary Thi Thach

Supervisor: Nallasamy Mani

Project Description:

Student Name(s):  Pradeepan Segarajasegaram, 

                        Goran Kozlina, Xu Zhai, Yong Shick Cho

Supervisor:  Nallasamy Mani

Project Description:

Student Name(s): Jonathan Lowe 

Supervisor: Andrew Price

Project Description:

Produce a VTOL flying air platform able to take off, hover , fly away and land. Suitable for someone with an interest in Programmable logic. Must produce an academic conference paper as a requirement.

Student Name(s): Nathan Smith

Supervisor: Andrew Price

Project Description:

Using AI, devise a system that will take all of the available input data , as well as a mission statement and integrate this data into a set of hardware control signals that affect the plane. You will have to consider throttle control for battery power consumption. Determine how much of the mission plan that remains is still feasible and generate the necessary control signals. Suitable for someone with an interest in Programmable. Must produce an academic conference paper as a requirement. This is a high end project suitable for an experienced programmer interested in AI and programmable logic.

Student Name(s): Matthew Daniel

Supervisor: Stewart Jenvey

Project Description:

Student Name(s): Edzel Iva Carlos

Supervisor: Terry Cornall

Project Description:

Student Name(s): Alistair Popple

Supervisor: Terry Cornall

Project Description:

Implement a Code Division Multiple Access method over Infra Red carrier. Useful for communications as well as proximity detectors. Needs some electronics implementation skills, embedded processor skills, signal processing skills. Investigate effects of processing gain on range, error rate etc. Build demonstration network.

Student Name(s): Anish Jeason D'Cruz

Supervisor: Terry Cornall

Project Description:

Develop a system to locate and read speed and other traffic signs from video. Recommended software Matlab but other considered. Requires vision or image processing skills and software development skills.

Student Name(s): Matthew Bull

Supervisor: Donald Holmes

Project Description:

Design and construct an outdoor weather station that can communicate with a remote display module using wireless communication. The weather station should be able to operate either from a solar cell or batteries (rechargeable) with servicing only required at very infrequent intervals. *** First preference for this project is Matt Bull ****

Student Name(s): Joseph Leopold

Supervisor: Arthur Lowery

Project Description:

Because RF wireless communications may eventually become saturated, especially if all computer peripherals and home entertainment systems eventually become wireless, there is an increasing interest in high-bandwidth photonic wireless transmission (a super-charged TV remote control, if you like). The aim of this project is to design the optoelectronic interfaces to a novel wireless photonic system. This means the transmitter (LED or laser, driver electronics, digital interface) and the receiver (PIN photodiode and low-noise preamplifier, digital interface). The project will require you to understand how to select components from their optical and photonic specifications, how to design high-speed circuits, and how to test the high-speed and optical performance of your system. You will be required to match theory and experiment to get good marks, that is, do a professional job at design and testing. It is likely that this project will lead to postgraduate research and/or commercial opportunities.

Student Name(s): Stephen Backway

Supervisor: Arthur Lowery

Project Description:

Student Name(s): Rowan Pat Doherty

Supervisor: Andrew Price

Project Description:

The Altera Miniboards developed in our department now have the capability of Compact Flash. This has substantial potential for anyone doing robotics or any kind of data logging. What is needed is an improvement to existing software that will allow us to read and write to the compact flash as a FAT16 or FAT32 device. This will enable us to quickly and easily interchange compact flash cards and access the data stored on them via a PC. A number of expansions to this project exist for the willing participant.

Student Name(s): James Byrne

Supervisor: Andrew Price

Project Description:

Design Construct Test and Validate a Flight leveller for an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle based on an Altera FPGA. The minimum requirments for this project are a working flight leveller that will keep a two servo (aileron only) Plank style UAV level in both calm winds and turbulence as well as be able to manage turns, climbing and decent. The scope of this project is well defined but able to be expanded.

Student Name(s): Rodney Mc Cormack

Supervisor: Andrew Price

Project Description:

The new generation of Monash miniboards, based on Altera FPGAs have the capability of controlling multiple digital cameras. What is needed is an interface daughter board to enable two cameras to be linked simultaneously to one Mk3 Miniboard. The product of this project will be a professional PCB capable of performing the interface and possibly other interfacing tasks as well (for example image processing) Suitable for a group of highly enthusiastic and motivated programmers, who dont mind getting their hands dirty with hardware. Each person will produce a unique project based on common hardware for assessment purposes.

Student Name(s): Michael Field

Supervisor: Andrew Price

Project Description:

Design Construct, test and Validate a FPGA based height measuring system that can be used to follow terrain in a slowly traversing UAV. This project may be expanded to provide a landing assistance system.

Student Name(s): Christophe Hohmann

Supervisor: Andrew Price

Project Description:

A flight controller that works entirely in programmable logic. (no C code, can use schematics, VHDL, or AHDL) Must be fully contained within an Altera FPGA (Cyclone family) and interface to other onboard systems via the NIOS II/Avalon bus. Suitable for someone with an interest in Programmable Logic. Results must be rigorously tested to demonstrate that the aircraft can fly level, and navigate a set of way points. Must produce an academic conference paper as a requirement. This is a high end project requiring one or more highly motivated students with an interest in digital electronics and microcontroller systems as well as programming.

Student Name(s): Lee Ern Je Hay

Supervisor: Jean Armstrong

Project Description:

OFDM is the modulation technique used for many broadband digital communications systems including digital television and wireless LANs. A disadvantage of OFDM is its high peak to average power ratio (PAPR). Amplifiers for OFDM must be designed with a large linear region. Any nonlinearity in the characteristic results in intermodulation and out of band power. In this project the effect of non linearities on an OFDM signal will be investigated both practically and theoretically. The effectiveness of peak reduction techniques will also be investigated. A OFDM system will be designed and built. This will comprise a DSP baseband OFDM transmitter and an RF modulator. The output of this system will be fed into a non linearity and the spectrum of the signal displayed on a spectrum analyzer. A Matlab simulation of the system will also be developed and the theoretical and practical results compared.

Student Name(s): Seyedmoham Zavabeti

Supervisor: Jaunty Ho

Project Description:

Student Name(s): Ushodaya Saripalle

Supervisor: Stewart Jenvey

Project Description:

Student Name(s): Terrence Lee

Supervisor: Terry Cornall

Project Description:

Student Name(s): Prasantha Paranapalliya, 

                          Piyush Juneja

Supervisor: Andrew Price

Project Description:Integrate an Altera FPGA along with an ethernet port to a wireless access point. Suitable for somone with an interest in communications, programming and microprocessor systems.

Student Name(s): Kim Wan Mok

Supervisor: Robin Russell

Project Description:

A great many mobile robots have been designed and built. However, the majority can only travel over relatively smooth horizontal surfaces. The aim of this project is to build a mobile robot that can travel over more demanding terrain and in particular climb a near vertical wall if provided with sufficient footholds (like an indoor climbing wall). A key feature of the robot will be the provision of adequate sensory feedback from the robot�s limbs. It is envisaged that the robot will have three limbs and use contact sensing to locate footholds.

Student Name(s): Jin Hui Tan, Ki Jin Wong

Supervisor: Robin Russell

Project Description:

Electrical power line cables are made up of a steel inner for strength and an aluminium outer to carry the current. In order to join lengths of cable a steel inner crimp joins the steel part of the cable and this is enclosed by an outer aluminium crimped sleeve. If the inner steel crimp is not positioned in the centre of the outer aluminium sleeve then water can get into the joint and cause corrosion, over heating and eventual failure of the joint. This project is to develop a mobile robot to travel along the power line to the position of the joint and then use one or more sensory systems (also to be developed in this project) to scan the joint and identify possible problems.

Student Name(s): Daniel O'Keeffe

Supervisor: Robin Russell

Project Description:

As a demonstration of pneumatic actuation this project involves the design and construction of a 4 or 6 legged mobile robot actuated by pneumatics. The robot is to be autonomous and to move based on simple sensory cues. One design constraint will be the use of currently available components rather than purchasing too many additional parts. The robot will be controlled by a PLC and its structure will be made out of aluminium tube and sheet material.

Student Name(s): Branislav Baco, Zhe Xian A Hu

Supervisor: Robin Russell

Project Description:

Following the successful development of an underwater wheel drive unit in 2005 this project moves to the next stage of designing a complete underwater exploration system. The proposed vehicle will be a remotely controlled 4-wheel drive device carrying a TV camera and lights. An umbilical cable will provide power & communications and it is intended that the explorer be capable of operating at a depth of 3 to 6 metres. This project will require mechanical design to overcome some limitations of the current wheel drive system. The pressure hull and suspension system are other mechanical design considerations. Vehicle electronics will control and monitor each wheel, sense vehicle attitude, measure depth, monitor hull integrity, provide power conditioning and transmit video to the surface.

Student Name(s): Eu Jin Chew, Belinda May

Supervisor: Robin Russell

Project Description:

A variety of parts will be fed to an industrial robot via a conveyor belt. These parts will be discriminated by a computer vision system and the robot directed to acquire and sort the parts. This project will require familiarity with the robot, vision system and conveyor

Student Name(s): Wei Sern Chew

Supervisor: Robin Russell

Project Description:

For some simple organisms it may be useful to know which conditions they find attractive and those that they would prefer to avoid. In this project a small mobile platform will be constructed which will be controllable by a simple organism. Movement or another measurable reaction of the organism will be detected and used to direct the motion of the platform. It this way the preferred conditions for the organism can be investigated while keeping it contained. This device may also be useful for investigating simple forms of learning.

Student Name(s): Alejandro Azcurra

Supervisor: Robin Russell

Project Description:

Currently there is a lot of research interest in investigating the capabilities of large swarms of simple robots. One of the obvious considerations for this kind of research is the cost and time required to build many robots. This project involves the design of a swarm robot. Constraints of cost and construction time will be met by the use of design automation (CAD for mechanical structure and PCB layout), NC milling for parts production and appropriate design for simplicity and ease of construction. The task for the swarm will be for the swarm to distribute the swarm members evenly within a constrained area.

Student Name(s): Leigh Chivers, Boon Hui Tan, Yee Khai 

                           Khaw, Martin Jam Keenan

Supervisor: Terry Cornall

Project Description:

Design, build,develop and test a small, vertically oriented, two wheeled vehicle that can balance whilst moving and standing still. Use a rate gyro and motor/gearbox/microcontroller/motor-driver circuit. Experience with micro-controllers and C programming required.

Student Name(s): Zheng Yi Teoh

Supervisor: Terry Cornall

Project Description:

Student Name(s): Ian Latimour

Supervisor: Nallasamy Mani

Project Description:

The advance in embedded processors, integrated memory and wireless communication technology has led to the development of small sensor nodes that are able to perform relatively intensive computation and wireless communications. This project aims to develop and evaluate a clustering scheme for energy efficient routing in wireless sensor networks.

Student Name(s): Rohan Pandit, Vishal Raizada, 

                          Bhawna, Vinay Kumar

Supervisor: Nemai Karmakar

Project Description:

The students in a team will work on RFID tag development. The project will cover the development of antennas, RF circuits and microcontroller. The student will design the RF circuit, programme microchip and conduct field trails with a RFID reader.

Student Name(s): Daniel Anile, Robert Di Stasi, Giap 

                          How Koh, Li May Moo

Supervisor: Nemai Karmakar

Project Description:

Collision avoidance radars for cars could save thousands of lives. The project will design an anti-collision radar for cars. Part 1. RF hardware part 2: Signal processing.

Student Name(s): Eu Chuan Low

Supervisor: Nemai Karmakar

Project Description: 

Satellite communications shapes the way people have been communicating over a long distance. However, mobile satellite communications is relatively new. For outback Australia, mobile satellite communications is the only mean of communications to the outer world. The project aims at the design of a briefcase satellite antenna for portable communications of voice and data.

Student Name(s): Farhad Per Tantra

Supervisor: Nemai Karmakar

Project Description:

A new technology is emerging to collect the solar power in the outer orbit with solar panels and convert the DC power to high frequency AC power. The converted AC power in the order of GWatts will be transmitted to the Earth. A rectifying antenna (rectenna) is required to capture the high frequency high power signal and convert back to DC power. This project will design a rectenna at 2.45 GHz. A rectenna consists of a microstrip patch antenna, a rectifying diode and a lowpass filter. Students will learn the design and implementation of a rentenna.

Student Name(s): Im Myung Lee, Haoshen Yan

Supervisor: Arthur Lowery

Project Description:

Student Name(s): Tomislav Muretic

Supervisor: John Bennett

Project Description:

Student Name(s): Mestyage Gunatilleke, Dennis Lim,

                          Sivaarun Thangarajah, Asanka 

                          Munasinghe

Supervisor: Nemai Karmakar

Project Description: 

A mobile phone will be devloped from the conceptual design to harware implementation. A group of budding engineers will work on differnt tasks and finally integrate their design into a complete mobilephone.

Student Name(s): Andrew Cameron

Supervisor: Le Binh

Project Description:

This projects proposes: (1) Measurement of extremely low optical energy level source (either CW or pulse modes) (2) Determination of the photo-detection under lowest noisy conditions using APD photodetection. (3) Detection of quantum signals using the above APD and photon counters operating under Geiger mode.

Student Name(s): Ashiqur Rahman

Supervisor: Le Binh

Project Description:

Digital transmission technique has been exploited recently for modulation and transmission of lightwaves information signals. This project proposes to: (1) Understanding and summarising teh MSK transmission principles (2) generate pre-coder for modulation of the lightwaves using optical intensity modulators; testing and characterisation of the generated MSK signals. (3) incorporate the fibre propagation model which has been developped at Monash. (4) Decoding and evaluate the transmisssion performance of the phase encoded signals, e.e. BER, Eye diagram etc. This project has been reserved for Lilea Chan. However more members can be accepted.

Student Name(s): Steven Sargeant, Allister Kirpalani

Supervisor: Le Binh

Project Description:

Dispersion-compensating fibres (DCF) are used at the end of each fibre transmission span to compensate the linear phase distortion. Optical amplfication can be generated in such DCF to enhance the signal transmission quality. This propject proposes to: (1) understanding and formulation of the parametric amplification processes including both signal gain and noise generation (2) development of a simulation model based on SIMULINK MAtlab 7 (3) evaluation of the small signal gain and noises and comparision with the published results (4) If time permits and availability of facilities, experimental demonstration of Raman amplification in Corning DCM-80, DCM-40. (5) Design of different DCF and their impacts on the optimisation of Raman amplification Candidates should have strong background in physics and EM propagation. This is a project for a group of two.

Student Name(s): Charles Thomas

Supervisor: Stewart Jenvey

Project Description:

Investigate astronomical radio sources and what antennas are suitable to receive them. Select a particular type of astronomical radio source and build/configure an antenna and receiver to receive the signals and map the sky. Students must be doing or have done Antennas and Propagation There are some prototype antennas existing and some background investigation material is available from last years students who were doing this project.

Student Name(s): Siew Chin Ho

Supervisor: Stewart Jenvey

Project Description:

1. Left Handed Material Antennas General Left handed materials are new artificial materials that bend light or radio waves in unexpected ways. In this project the student will investigate the design of left handed materials and their application to novel types of antennas. Explanation Left handed materials are materials comprising printed combinations of electric and magnetic resonators that have negative permitivity and negative permeability becuase of the phase shift that occurs in the resonant structures. They exhibit negative refractive properties that make them have great potential for high resolution antennas that cannot be made using conventional materials. The student must be doing or have done Antennas and propagation.

Student Name(s): Yit Phing Chong

Supervisor: Stewart Jenvey

Project Description:

Frequency Selective Surfaces are materials that pass some radio frequencies and block others. They are very useful in designing multiband antennas and for sealing rooms to stop radio signals of particular frequencies from entering or leaving. In this project the student will study such surfaces in general and will use established software and/or write new software to analyse typical surfaces. They will then then build and test some of these surfaces. Particular attention will be on the design of surfaces that pass all frequencies except for mobile phone frequencies. The student must be doing or have done Antennas and Propagation.

Student Name(s): Yoong Keon Leong

Supervisor: Stewart Jenvey

Project Description:

For our radio propagation in buildings research we need a base station antenna that has multiple radio beams that are swichable under microprocessor control. We have the necessary switchable multi-beam antenna. It now needs to have a microprocessor interfaced to it, and software written for it so it can analyse samples of the signals received by the multiple beams. It will then decide which is the best beam to use to ensure quality communications and then control the switching. The task is then -to interface a suitable microprocessor -to write the software -to organise the signal sampling -and design the control of the antenna beam switching.

Student Name(s): Stephen Backway

Supervisor: Stewart Jenvey

Project Description:

To design contruct and test a simple Vector Network Analyser. A Vector Network Analyser (VNA) is one of the most useful and widely used RF and microwave instruments. It is used to measure device input impedance and vector transfer function We propose to deign, build and tast a computer controlled VNA using off the shelf RF subsystems such as signal sources and receivers and to interface this to a computer and to write the necessary control software.

Student Name(s): Sebastian Castro, San Yau Foo, Imon

                          Kalya Choudhury

Supervisor: Jingxin Zhang

Project Description:

Along with the wide spread applications of power electronic equipment, nonsinusoidal (current and or voltage) waveforms are more and more encountered in electrical power systems. However, power measurement under nonsinusoidal conditions is an incomplete technique that is still under development. The objective of this project is to implement with microprocessor the new algorithms recently developed for the power measurement of nonsinusoidal systems. The project involves both hardware (interface) design and software (coding) development. The project is sponsored by ABB Australia and will be co-supervised by the industrial supervisor from ABB, who is the developer of the new algorithms. The students doing this project will work closely with the industrial supervisor and may conduct test at ABB, which provides an excellent opportunity to gain industry experience and potential job prospect.

Student Name(s): Kwok Hung Tse

Supervisor: Le Binh

Project Description:

Modulation formats are expected to contribute to the improvement of the bit-error-rate and hence the transmission quality of lightwave modulated signal long-haul transmission at 40 Gb/s .In this project the following tasks would be expected: (1) Understanding of continuous phase frequency shift keying (CPFSK) modulation technique of digital communications; (2) Optical modulation and photonic transmitter technology and the implementation of the CPFSK in Simulink MATLAB; (3) Testing of photonic transmitter and optical detection technique; (4) Integration of available optical transmission media, the standard optical fibres, advanced non-zero dispersion shifted fibres and dispersion compensating fibres for transmission of CPFSK lightwave modulated signals; (5) Integration of optical amplifiers; and (6) Conduction of long haul optical transmission tests and evaluation of system performance.

Student Name(s): Lilea Chan

Supervisor: Le Binh

Project Description:

This project will investigate the employment of minimum shiftkeying of digital communications for the design of encoders, decoders, photonic transmitters and optical receivers as well as propagation over optical guided media with dispersion compensation. Ms Lilea Chan has indicated her inetrest and she would be a team member.

Student Name(s): Qie Lu Yu

Supervisor: Gregory Cambrell

Project Description:

Student Name(s): Michael Spencer

Supervisor: Stewart Jenvey

Project Description:

Student Name(s): Yoong Ping Lim

Supervisor: Le Binh

Project Description:

Laser Doppler Blood Flow Measurement Supervisors Dr. Roger Evans (Physiology) and A/Prof. D. Suter Commercial devices for measuring blood flow in skin, using doppler laser, currently exist. Unfortunately, all of the commercially available machines use a signal processing algorithm that is optimized for studying blood flow in skin. The density of blood flowing in skin is much less than that flowing in organs such as the kidney. This causes problems in interpreting the output of conventional machines, designed for skin, when applied to kidney blood flow measurments. One possible solution is that one can find a way to modify the current instruments as a signal processing step applied to the raw signal coming from those machines. These experiments need not involve experiments on animals, as we have model systems that enable us to simulate the in vivo situation on the bench. The work will involve a) literature survey and summary of doppler blood flow measurement techniques and the problems of applying these across a wide variety of tissue types. b) experiments with pumps/tubes etc. simulating blood flow in vivo c) signal processing. The work could, for the right student, also involve mathematical modelling (but it need not!). Likewise, the project may suit a doub le degree student with a strong background in biology/physiology but can also be undertaken by a student without such a background (concentrating more on the instrumentation/signal processing)

Student Name(s): Hai Chen Yu, Peng Li

Supervisor: Jaunty Ho

Project Description: