Glasgow designers open up rocky road

Student engineers at Glasgow University have designed and built an off-road wheelchair that can climb rough terrain.

The prototype was presented to the Firrhill Day Centre in Edinburgh. One of its staff, Fiona Cartmell, is married to Glasgow's professor of applied dynamics, Matthew Cartmell, who oversaw the three-year project, winning £5,000 from Audi to support it.

Mechanical engineering students Rory Wilkinson, Diogo Phillimore, Rohan Corlett and Andrew Gunstone worked on the wheelchair as a final-year project.

It has been tested off-road and is performing well with a top speed of 3mph. It has an aluminium frame and has been spray-painted blue.

Mr Gunstone said: "I would love to see some aspects of the design incorporated into a product that could become widely available on the market."

Linda Gibson of Firrhill said: "We are looking forward to putting this new wheelchair through its paces."