A user-steered guide robot for the blind

This study deals with a guide robot for blind people. User inputs (i.e., commands for movements) are obtained from blind people through a joystick, which has two potentiometers. Some noise unintentionally caused by the user is included in this input. To reject the unwanted signal, the robot has to recognize the intention of the user even with these noises. In order to make the robot follow the intention, an Omni wheel-based driving unit is attached under the joystick through a link. Although the Omni wheel moves easily along narrow curves, it is important to make the user´s wrist or arm holding the joystick comfortable by planning proper motion trajectory. To do this, a fuzzy logic control is employed to identify the user´s intention and determine movement velocity and direction of the robot from the joystick signal.