BLIND CANE - Designskolen Kolding Denmark

In that shool project we had to develop an aid for elderly people, using robotics. Gren is a physical blind cane that is equipped with a compas, an ultrasonic sensor and a thumb wheel that is powered with a servo motor. All components are linked with an Arduino board. The concept: The user uses voice control to program the desired destination. The GPS guides the person with the thumb wheel. This has the befefit that the hearing of the blind person is not occupied by voice instructions. Blind people depend higly on that sense and to not want to wear earpads while walking in open spaces. In additon the canes ultrasonic sensor can detect objects in front if the blind person, that can not yet be felt with the cane’s tip. The handle will vibrate if there is an object in the sensors measuring field. The intension of the vibration increases if the person comes closer to the object. That feedback can be used to “scan” a room by swinging the cange from left to right, which is the natural way of moving the cane in use.

The project included the selection of the hardware, connecting them and write the code for the Arduino board. Once the system was running we designed the cane around the parts and built  a working prototype.