• Scott Wilson

Innovation to improve lives

Working on a passion project to bring the sense of touch to prosthetics wearers is fuelling Scott Wilson’s fire outside of his day job and is making for a busy 2022 for the 27 year-old.

The 2016 AIMES Emerging Talent Award winner completed his Masters in Mechatronics Engineering in early 2018, going on to join forces with the director of the company who sponsored him through his further study to start a research & development company ‘targeting robotics in construction’.

“My role in the company is CTO (Chief Technology Office),” says Scott, “which, because we are small, means I am involved in all aspects of the research and development projects. I have been in this role for four years now and it’s been a great learning experience. I have successfully delivered a number of projects that will help make the industry safer, easier, and more efficient.”

Outside of work, the Hibiscus Coast resident is working on a way to improve the lives of people who use artificial limbs. 

“I have been working on a personal project aiming to provide sensory feedback (touch, pressure, etc) for prosthetics. This project has been a massive undertaking, with interesting challenges and has provided some really good learning opportunities. “

“The project excites me because of the potential benefit it could provide to people using modern prosthetics; it could mean ‘feeling’ when the artificial fingers and hands are being touched.”

Former Orewa College student Scott has high aims and is keen to develop his knowledge and skills in mechatronics engineering to provide innovative solutions for life-enhancing purposes.

Among Scott’s achievements already include presenting his paper, Audio sensory substitution for human-in-the-loop force feedback for upper limb prosthetics, at the International Conference for Mechatronics and Machine Vision in Practice in Nanjing, China. He has worked with Fisher & Paykel on developing a new humidifier to aid people who require humidified breathing assistance. 

Scott’s Master’s project was based around 3D localisation and mapping, where he published another paper titled, Robot-assisted floor surface profiling using low-cost sensors, in the Remote Sensing 2019 journal. Throughout his university studies he also created an autonomous robot platform for reducing nitrogen levels in farm soil to improve water quality and he’s developed a smartwatch with location auto-alerts for solo workers requiring urgent medical attention.

“I am working hard on my passion project (the prosthetic technology) and will continue to develop this further and create it into something people can benefit from. 2022 is looking like a busy but very exciting year!”