The Wearable Navigation System for the Visually Impaired

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Since 1992, we have been conducted research and development on an autonomous mobile robot, and studied a robot that travels autonomously in an outdoor environment. In 1995, we started the development of the robotic travel aid application to guide visually impaired. The robotic travel aid is a motorized wheel chair equipped with vision, sonar and tactile sensors as well as a map database system.However, the robot has two weak points, one is that there are many steps in an ordinary outdoor environment and the other is that the change of the environment is dynamic. To overcome their weak points, in 2002, we started the WearAble Navigation System (WANS) Project. The WANS system is a small and light system equipped with image processing computer, vision, sonar, pedometer, and magnetic sensor.For the changing of the environment, we developed the map management utility based on XML system. In the 1st phase, we used only a magnetic sensor for the detection of the direction. However, a big distortion of the magnetic field happened at a station. So we added an optical fiber gyro sensor to the system. With integrating various sensors data and observing the time changing, we achieved the using of the WANS at the station. Experimental results in an ordinary outdoor environment and at a station showed the effectiveness of our WANS.