Future transport solutions are already a focus with some of Australia’s student designers. Among the projects for the coveted international James Dyson Award, entrants included a compactable car, a motorcycle that runs on air and a jump-jet ambulance.
The award is an international design competition open to students in eighteen countries around the world, who are invited to enter their end of year projects or other inventions they have developed.
GMXO Compactable Car
The GMXO Compactable Car designed by Ali Jafari solves the problem of fitting cars into small spaces – but making the car smaller. Using a fabric skin that allows for flexible expansion and contraction, the car can be stretched to take extra passengers or cargo and then compacted again for parking.
Jafari says the shape-shifting exterior fabrics would also be used in the cabin “to create pneumatic interior elements that adapt to the vehicle’s exterior changes and its occupant’s needs as the vehicle expands in a sliding motion”.
The design includes omni-directional wheels, each containing an electric motor to power the car, with the vehicle operating either autonomously or steered with a handheld wireless control.
Jafari says his vision is to tackle the multiple problems of “pollution, congestion, high fuel prices, consumption of non-renewable resources and lack or uneven distribution of key public infrastructure … a few of the bottlenecks that still remain prevalent in many megacities of the twenty first century”.
“The primary focus of this project was to analyse trends, forecast future possibilities and alleviate some of key issues of future urban transportation through design and functional solutions,” he says.
02 Pursuit - Watch the video
RMIT student Dean Benstead’s 02 Pursuit air-driven motorcycle explores the use of air as an alternate fuel for the future. Benstead suggests we could see an infrastructure of air refill stations instead of petrol stations.
A functional prototype has already been developed using the DiPietro Air Engine, developed by Engineair Australia. “The O2 Pursuit motorcycle has the ability to be directed at off road riding and city commuting,” Benstead says. “The bike needed to use existing geometry so as not to alienate an existing market yet needed to house a large air vessel and reduced engine size. A new package was required.
“There was a constant combination of styling and engineering. The design of the frame evolved through many iterations to find a cost effective and efficient design, and the design for manufacture process was extensive to ensure accurate production. The bike achieved a top speed of 140kmph during stationary tests.”
Sky Way 
- Watch the video
Daniel Dobrogorsky’s Sky Way rapid response vehicle means ambulance drivers would no longer have to battle their way through traffic to reach the scene of an emergency. The Sky Way air-ambulance is designed to be capable of vertical take-off and landing, and – fixed wing aircraft and helicopters – is not restricted to large allocated landing zones and runways.
Dobrogorsky says Ambulance Victoria provided feedback during the design process, with emergency response workflows helping to define requirements and decide upon the method of propulsion.
“Form, mass distribution and styling were explored using soft and hard models, with flight dynamics computer-modelled and results fed back into the engineering design process,” he says. “Skyway is a developed design with a focus on tuning its detail towards patient and paramedic needs, real world physics and medical emergency scenarios.”
The 02 Pursuit and Sky Way have already been shortlisted among the 10 Australian finalists for the international James Dyson Award to be announced on November 8. They will now join others from around the world vying to capture the top prize: £10,000 ($15,500) to develop their invention and the same amount for their university.
The shortlist included:
Reach & Match by Mandy Shuk-Man (Monash): A braille learning toy for blind and visually impaired infants which won the National award of £1,000 ($1550)
Sky Way by Daniel Dobrogorsky (Monash): a rapid-response air ambulance capable of vertical take-off and landing
02 Pursuit by Dean Benstead (RMIT): air-powered transport solution RMIT
Atmosphere by Alfred Ching (UNSW): an onsite treatment solution for decompression or ‘the bends’
Crawl by Kieran John (Monash): compact and lightweight solution for climbing electric poles
Watchman by Daniel Virgona (UTS): a glow in the dark electrical extension lead
ULTIVO by Patryk Koca (UTS): a product solution to provide safe handling in biomedical labs
Aquamag by Andrew Hambly (UTS): a personal underwater magnet clamping device for commercial divers
EM Tracker by David George (UNSW): sixth-sense for rescue teams to track victims via mobile phone
Oscar Task Chair by Jessica Cassar: an office chair that promotes activity whilst sitting
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