An Autonomous LiDAR Based Ground Plane Hazards Detector for the Visually Impaired

World Health Organization (WHO) reported that the number of people with visual impairment are estimated to be double due to the population growth and ageing. Thus, the need for the assistive devices are expected to be increased. An electronic travel aid can be very helpful for the visually impaired to support their navigation and orientation as they cannot ensure the surrounding is safe to move around. In our previous work, a secondary device using only an ultrasonic sensor was proposed. The ultrasonic sensor detection tool is able to perform up to expectation in real time. In this paper, our work is extended by changing the ultrasonic sensor with a LiDAR module to improve the stability of detection and increase the success detection rate. We presented a prototype for detection of ground plane hazards with one LiDAR module and one servo motor. The testing concluded that switching to LiDAR module showed an improvement from our previous work in term of stability and the success detection rate.