Collegiate Times

Attaining a driver’s license for most teenagers is a must, but for some groups of people such as the blind, this adolescent rite of passage never comes. However, the Robotics & Mechanisms Laboratory at Virginia Tech, or RoMeLa, is working on a way to fix this.

In 2005, the National Federation for the Blind challenged society to create a car that a blind person could drive. So far, Tech has been the only one to rise to the challenge.

Dennis Hong, mechanical engineering professor, faculty advisor, and RoMeLa director, explained why Tech chose to move forward with the project.

“(We) saw the potential for spin-off technologies,” Hong said, “(and wanted) to give hope to the blind of how technology will be able to help their everyday lives, to inspire other researchers and scientists to develop technology to help people in need.”

To Hong, the project has been a great success so far. Kimberly Wenger, senior mechanical engineering major and student team leader of the project, stated that the specific goal of the project was to create a car that a blind person could maneuver through a defined course of traffic cones. This has been accomplished and demonstrated using laser range finder technology, which uses a laser beam to judge distances.

With the laser technology, the vehicle interprets the surrounding area and then instructs drivers on how they should maneuver the car in order to avoid any obstacles. The steering wheel does so by utilizing “clicks,” which are noises emitted by the car to the driver when it senses an object. One “click” is equal to turning the wheel five degrees. So, if the driver needs to turn the wheel 10 degrees to the right, the driver will hear “two right.”

According to Wenger, in addition to direction, a blind driver also needs instruction on speed. A speed limit is set in the program and if the driver exceeds this speed, vibrations will alert the driver. Drivers wear a tactile vest that will vibrate more and more as the excess speed increases. In the event of an emergency stop, all motors in the vest will vibrate to alert the driver of the necessary immediate action.

---

Continue Reading: 1 | 2 | Next »

---