Walking guide robot with tactile display for the blind

A prototype of a walking guide robot with tactile display was introduced, and the psychophysical experiment of the tactile recognition for a tactile display was carried out and analyzed. The objective of this research is the development of a walking guide robot for the blind to walk safely. The walking guide robot consists of a guide vehicle for the obstacle detection and a tactile display device for the transfer of the obstacle information. The guide vehicle, located in the front of the walking blind, detects the obstacle using ultrasonic and infrared ray sensors. The processed information makes a obstacle map and transmits safe path and emergency situation to the blind by the tactile display. The guide vehicle offers the information of position and walking direction acquired from GPS module to the walking blind by voice. The tactile display device, located in the handle which is connected with the guide vehicle by cane, offers the processed obstacle information such as position, size, moving, shape of obstacle and safe path, etc., The psychophysical experiments for the threshold of perception and recognition ability of tactile stimulation were carried out by the estimation of the subject group. As a result, the appropriate tactile stimulus intensity and frequency to recognize tactile stimulation effectively were discussed and derived.