Prototype of guide robot using marks in dynamic environments for visually impaired people

Abstract

Visually impaired people have several limitations when performing daily tasks, they almost always need the help of a person who does not suffer visual impairment to help with these tasks, which makes them dependent on other people. In the present work a mobile robot prototype is presented that aims to provide independence to visually impaired people when making purchases in a supermarket. With this objective, the development of a mobile differential type dragging robot that uses infrared sensors to follow a black line, a web camera to recognize green and red marks that indicate turn or stop actions respectively, ultrasonic sensors to avoid collisions with obstacles in the route tracking and a LattePanda vented card to control the system is presented. In addition, the results obtained from tests carried out with the prototype are shown in guiding people to contribute with data that detail the behavior of this model under experimental conditions using artificial vision and infrared sensors.