Deakin researchers to build Australian-first motion simulator

Deakin Deputy Vice Chancellor Research Professor Julie Owens congratulated Alfred Deakin Professor Saeid Nahavandi on his success in the competitive national grant scheme, which will see an Australian-first haptically-enabled motion simulator built at the University's Waurn Ponds campus.

"This project is ground-breaking for Australia and an example of the world-class research Deakin University undertakes – advancing Australia as the global leader in motion simulation and vehicular technologies," Professor Owens said.

"I would like to congratulate Professor Nahavandi and his team of investigators on their successful bid to continue IISRI's pioneering work in the haptics and robotic field."

Professor Nahavandi, along Deakin Chief Investigators Professor Chee Peng Lim, Associate Professor Hieu Trinh, Dr Abbas Khosravi and Dr Houshyar Asadi, will lead the facility that will allow for high acceleration and high vibration manoeuvres, as well as eight-degrees-of-freedom range of motion.

Other key staff for this research include Dr Shady Mohamed, Dr Navid Mohajer, Dr Zoran Najdovski and Dr Matthew Watson, who will support a number of PhD students and local industry to reap the benefits of having a world-class research facility.

"The facility will be able to carry among other applications, the entire control compartment of a heavy vehicle, a truck, a large bus, an ambulance, a train or the multi-operator cockpit of a mining vehicle for simulation," Professor Nahavandi said.

"The facility will allow us to undertake research that will provide significant benefits for virtual vehicle prototyping and testing, driver training and behaviour modelling, motion perception and motion sickness research and secure IISRI as the global leader in motion simulation and vehicular technologies."

Monash University, The University of Adelaide and Swinburne University of Technology will collaborate with Professor Nahavandi and his team on the "high-payload, high-fidelity haptically-enabled motion simulation facility" project.

Professor Owens also congratulated Deakin researchers awarded ARC funding via collaborative projects including:

• Dr Ross Marceau and Professor Patrick Howlett from the Institute for Frontier Materials (IFM) in collaboration with Monash University,
• Dr Luke O’Dell and Professor Maria Forsyth from IFM in collaboration with University of New South Wales,
• Dr Weiwei Lei from IFM in collaboration with The Australian National University,
• Dr Julius Orwa from Faculty of Science, Engineering and Built Environment in collaboration with The University of Melbourne,
• Professor Rosanne Guijt from the Faculty of Science, Engineering and Built Environment and Dr Ludovic Dumee from IFM in collaboration with Monash University,
• Professor Matthew Barnett and Professor Ying (Ian) Chen from IFM in collaboration with University of Wollongong,
• Professor Lingxue Kong from IFM and Professor Abbas Kouzani from the Faculty of Science, Engineering and Built Environment in collaboration with Monash University.

"To all those applicants who submitted their work for consideration, I thank you for making the effort on behalf of Deakin University and the broader communities we serve," Professor Owens said.