PeterH:
To make any useful contribution to something as heavy as a suitcase, you're going to need quite a bit of power. Packaging and installing all the components on an existing suitcase would take a substantial amount of work.An approach I've seen used successfully on electrically assisted bikes is to fit a powered trolley behind the bike to act as a pusher. It seems to me that you might be able to come up with a two-wheel trolley that one corner of the suitcase can sit in, containing a battery and motors operated by a pressure sensor on the suitcase handle. If you're feeling ambitious you could integrate this with the suitcase's own integral wheels, but I think that will be much harder to package and you might want to defer that. Perhaps you'll have time for that as well during your twelve weeks, but I suggest you get the standalone version working first - very little of the work on that will have been wasted if you decide to continue with 'phase 2' in the same project.
In other words, take an iterative approach and do the parts that will show the greatest value first. That's the electrics and electronics and control logic.
Thanks for the information. As my tutor has mentioned I should just make a version of this project where it isn't actually implemented within a suitcase but just to build the prototype design of it being powered involving a Arduino Uno (given to us by the university to keep) board.What I'm just worried about is the actual coding of this project as I haven't even got the slightest bit of experience in Arduino programming never mind java programming. What would you say about the coding side of this project? Is it complex or a simple bit of coding required to spin the wheels around?