Development of Obstacle and Pit-Detecting Ultrasonic Walking Stick for the Blind

Abstract

This project focused on improving mobility for a blind person by creating an obstacle and pit detecting walking stick using ultrasonic sensors. The project comprised of both hardware and software. The hardware consists of ultrasonic sensors, buzzers and a microcontroller, while the software consists of Arduino Integrated Development Environment (Arduino IDE), which was used to program the microcontroller. A Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) casing was used to house the hardware components. The ultrasonic sensor that detects obstacles was programmed to detect obstacles at a distance of 100 cm or below and causes the buzzer to sound so as to alert the blind person. Another ultrasonic sensor was programmed to identify pit at a depression of 18 cm and above. This stick was tested to detect obstacles by 80 different blindfolded individuals within a room with different objects placed at different positions. Results showed that the percentage reduction of collision rate when comparing the developed ultrasonic walking stick to a normal white cane is 90.1%. This shows that the ultrasonic walking stick is reliable for domestic use by a blind person. Keywords— Arduino, ATmega328 Microcontroller, Blind walking stick, Mobility aid, Smart cane, Ultrasonic sensor.