EAGER: Guide Drones for Blind Athletes

在美国，大约有2500万人有视觉障碍，其中130万人是法定盲人。缺乏体育活动对这些人来说是一个严重的健康问题，他们很少有机会参加体育活动，而这些活动能够提供保持适当健康和支持健康生活方式所需的数量和种类的刺激，原因如下：缺乏运动伙伴或与之一起运动的有视力的向导；安全问题;而且普遍缺乏可选择的活动。跑步是一种流行的运动形式，对心血管健康有多种好处，但要在户外跑步，盲人运动员目前必须依靠一个视力正常的人用绳子安全地引导他们；除了遇到一个有一个合适的时间表并愿意一起锻炼的人的挑战之外，这种对他人的依赖对盲人锻炼的频率和持续时间造成了很大的限制。有人认为，机器人可能会让残疾人过上更独立的生活，但之前探索的方法主要涉及以缓慢速度移动的接地机器人。因为跑步的速度比走路快得多，这个探索性项目将研究使用无人驾驶飞行器（通常被称为无人机）来安全地引导盲人跑步者。盲人运动员仅凭声音跟随前方固定距离飞行的无人机，没有人类运动同伴，也没有绳索阻碍他/她的奔跑能力。PI将采用市售的低成本四轴飞行器平台，使用智能手机上的应用程序进行控制，探索音频反馈机制，使盲人跑步者能够有效地跟随无人机，同时避开障碍物，并纠正无意偏离航线。PI已经确保了一名盲人铁人三项运动员作为该项目顾问的合作，就设计问题提供反馈，参与早期试验，并帮助招募受试者。本研究将在非视觉人机交互方面做出重大贡献，同时建立设计原则，为一种新的辅助技术奠定基础。这项工作的潜在未来扩展可能涉及使用引导无人机进行其他体育活动，如游泳或骑自行车，在这些活动中使用接地机器人和皮带是不切实际的。

There are approximately 25 million people with visual impairments in the United States, including 1.3 million who are legally blind. Lack of physical activity is a serious health concern for these individuals, who have fewer opportunities to engage in physical activities that provide the amounts and kinds of stimulation necessary to maintain adequate fitness and to support a healthy lifestyle, for a number of reasons: a lack of exercise partners or sighted guides with whom to exercise; safety concerns; and a general lack of accessible activities to choose from. Running is a popular form of exercise that offers various cardiovascular health benefits, but to run outdoors blind athletes must currently rely on a sighted person to safely guide them using a tether; in addition to the challenge of meeting someone who has a compatible schedule and is willing to exercise together, this dependency on others puts significant constraints on the frequency and duration with which blind individuals can exercise.It has been suggested that robots may allow individuals with disabilities to lead more independent lives, but the approaches that have previously been explored primarily involve grounded robots moving at slow speeds. Because running is performed at a much faster pace than walking, this exploratory project will investigate the use of an unmanned aerial vehicle (commonly referred to as a drone) to safely guide a blind runner. The blind athlete follows the drone, which is flying ahead of him/her at a fixed distance, on the basis of sound alone, with no human exercise companion and no tether to impede his/her ability to run. The PI will employ a commercially available low-cost quadcopter platform that is controlled using an app on a smartphone, to explore audio feedback mechanisms that allow a blind runner to effectively follow the drone while avoiding obstacles and also correcting for unintentional veering off course.The PI has secured the collaboration of a blind triathlon athlete as a consultant on this project, to provide feedback on design issues, to participate in early trials, and to help with subject recruitment. This research will make significant contributions in nonvisual Human-Robot Interaction while establishing design principles and laying the foundations for a new kind of assistive technology. Potential future extensions to the work could involve the use of guide drones for other physical activities such as swimming or cycling, where the use of a grounded robot and leash is impractical.