The Centre for Autonomous Systems at UTS is effectively a robotics laboratory, where researchers are working with a disability services provider to develop machines for people needing help. Devices already developed include a robotic walking assistant, an intelligent wheelchair and a robotic arm, or "exoskeleton". These are all intelligent robots, designed to give disabled people more helps. Marc Carmichael is a postgraduate research student in robotics at the university. He says robotic aids like these could hold the key to a more independent life for disabled people. "If you can give someone a device that gives the person the capability to feed themselves, whereas before they couldn't, that's a major increase in their quality of life." A robotic arm "exoskeleton" could help rehabilitate victims of strokes, spinal cord injuries or neurological disorders. The collaborative aspect is a challenge for engineers .Robots have to act autonomously but also interact with human beings. A person's medical details are fed into a computer linked to the robot, which takes in the information and customizes its movements accordingly. In the case of Carmichael's robotic arm, the exoskeleton would analyze where a person's muscular weakness is and provide assistance to compensate for this. Robotic walking assistants and intelligent wheel chairs could help with navigating narrow doorways, and general mobility at home and in the community. Dr Jaime Valls Miro is Senior Research Fellow at UTS. "We want to come up with new goods and new ideas that we can put into practice and in this particular case, we can make, or we hope that we can make a difference." Although the research phase is well advanced, prototypes of the robotics machines are still a long way off production. But with an investment of 3.9 million US dollars driving research, assistive robotics looks set to accelerate the quest to create an easier world for the disabled community.