Development of a Travel Aid Containing Non-Contact Sensors and Wheeled Claws

• Main Authors: Jo-Yu Chao, 趙若妤
• Other Authors: 劉正良
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2007
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/21500566495424601237

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 機械工程學研究所 === 95 === More than 70 percent of human daily activities rely on vision. If people get sight problem or lose their sights, they can’t do anything at all. Therefore, travel aids are very important necessities for the blind. At present, the most popular travel aids used universally are white canes which detect obstacles by knocking ground. But knocking ground makes walking speed slow and detection missing easily. Another well-known travel aid for the blind is guide dog. However, few people use them so far, because the training of guide dogs is not easy and the price for buying them is high. In recent years, some laboratories start to develop a new type of travel aid called electric travel aids, ETA. Up to now, ETA is still developing and there are many drawbacks such as slow data processing, high price, and failure to detect holes etc. In this work, we develop a new type of ETA, which can detect not only the barriers above the ground but also the sunk floors like holes, downward stairs, and cliffs, etc. The new ETA contains a long cane with two wheels, and several wheeled claws. It rolls on the ground, so users can get the information about the ground by recognizing the fluctuation of wheels. Besides, some photoelectric sensors are installed on the cane to detect the obstacles ahead of user but suspended in midair. Several wheeled claws extend to the front from the wheel shaft, and help users detect dangerous sudden descents. As soon as photoelectric sensors and wheeled claws get the barrier information, the electric system transfers signals to the blind. Then the blind knows how to dodge the obstacle definitely. A prototype has been made, and some trial tests are performed. The results show that the travel aid used in this research has wider and better performances than white canes.