Developing a way-finding system on mobile robot assisting visually impaired people in an indoor environment

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• 作者：Quoc-Hung Nguyen ; Hai Vu ; Thanh-Hai Tran…
• 关键词：Visual odometry ; Environmental map ; Vision ; based localization ; Assistive technology for visually impaired ; Indoor navigation
• 刊名：Multimedia Tools and Applications
• 出版年：2017
• 出版时间：January 2017
• 年：2017
• 卷：76
• 期：2
• 页码：2645-2669
• 全文大小：
• 刊物类别：Computer Science
• 刊物主题：Multimedia Information Systems; Computer Communication Networks; Data Structures, Cryptology and Information Theory; Special Purpose and Application-Based Systems;
• 出版者：Springer US
• ISSN：1573-7721
• 卷排序：76

文摘

A way-finding system in an indoor environment consists of several components: localization, representation, path planning, and interaction. For each component, numerous relevant techniques have been proposed. However, deploying feasible techniques, particularly in real scenarios, remains challenging. In this paper, we describe a functional way-finding system deployed on a mobile robot to assist visual impairments (VI). The proposed system deploys state-of-the-art techniques that are adapted to the practical issues at hand. First, we adapt an outdoor visual odometry technique to indoor use by covering manual markers or stickers on ground-planes. The main purpose is to build reliable travel routes in the environment. Second, we propose a procedure to define and optimize the landmark/representative scenes of the environment. This technique handles the repetitive and ambiguous structures of the environment. In order to interact with VI people, we deploy a convenient interface on a smart phone. Three different indoor scenarios and thirteen subjects are conducted in our evaluations. Our experimental results show that VI people, particularly VI pupils, can find the right way to requested targets.