[nfb-talk] Blind People At The Wheel:

[Kenneth Chrane]

Blind can take wheel with vehicle designed by university engineering design 
team

By Steven Mackay



BLACKSBURG, Va., July 15, 2009 -- A student team in the Virginia Tech 
College of Engineering is providing the blind with an opportunity many never 
thought possible: The opportunity to drive.

A retrofitted four-wheel dirt buggy developed by the Blind Driver Challenge 
team from Virginia Tech's Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory uses laser 
range finders, an instant voice command interface and a host of other 
innovative, cutting-edge technology to guide blind drivers as they steer, 
brake, and accelerate. Although in the early testing stage, the National 
Federation of the Blind -- which spurred the project -- considers the 
vehicle a major breakthrough for independent living of the visually 
impaired.

"It was great!" said Wes Majerus, of Baltimore, the first blind person to 
drive the buggy on a closed course at the Virginia Tech campus earlier this 
summer. Majerus is an access technology specialist with the National 
Federation of the Blind's Jernigan Institute in Baltimore, a research and 
training institute dedicated to developing technologies and services to help 
the blind achieve independence.

Majerus called his drive a liberating experience, adding that he drove 
before on Nebraska farm roads with his father as a guide in the passenger 
seat.

Sitting inside the vehicle, a blind driver can turn the steering wheel, stop 
and accelerate by following data from a computing unit that uses sensory 
information from the laser range finder serving as the 'eyes' of the driver, 
in addition to a combination of voice commands and a vibrating vest as 
guides. A member of the Virginia Tech student team sat next to Majerus in 
the passenger seat to monitor the system's software operations.

"It's a great first step," Majerus added. "As far as the differences between 
human instructions and those given by the voice in the Blind Driver 
Challenge car, the car's instructions are very precise. You use the 
technology to act on the environment -- the driving course -- in a very 
orderly manner. In some cases, the human passenger will be vague, "turn 
left" -- does that mean just a small turn to the left, or are we going for 
large amounts of turn?"

Also driving the vehicle was Mark Riccobono, also of Baltimore, the 
executive director of the Jernigan Institute, who also is blind. He called 
his test drive historic. "This is sort of our going to the moon project," he 
said

In 2004 Jernigan Institute challenged university research teams to develop a 
vehicle that would one day allow the blind to drive. Virginia Tech was the 
only university in the nation to accept the nonprofit's call two years 
later, said Dennis Hong, director of the Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory, 
part of the Virginia Tech mechanical engineering department. The National 
Federation of the Blind provided a $3,000 grant to launch the project.

"I thought it would be a very rewarding project, helping the blind," said 
Hong, the current faculty adviser on the project. "We are not only excited 
about the vehicle itself, but more than that, we are excited about the 
potential of the many spin-off technologies from this project that can be 
used for helping the blind in so many ways."

The team will bring the Blind Driver Challenge vehicle to the National 
Federation of the Blind's Youth Slam summer camp event held July 26 through 
Aug. 1 in College Park, Md. There, the team hopes to have teenagers who 
would be obtaining their driver's licenses, but cannot because of their 
blindness, drive the buggy.

Youth participants also are expected to remote control drive miniature cars. 
Additionally, the car is expected to ride in a National Federation of the 
Blind-sponsored parade in Washington D.C.

"I most look forward to learning as much as I can from these bright young 
students," said Greg Jannaman, who led the Virginia Tech student team in his 
senior year and graduated in May with a bachelor's degree in mechanical 
engineering. "Blind students from across the nation apply to be selected to 
attend this summer camp. While we are there to provide an educational 
experience for them, I can only imagine the invaluable feedback and fresh 
new ideas that they will provide in return."

Jannaman is excited about the vehicle's success. "There wasn't a moment's 
hesitation with any of our blind drivers, whereas blind-folded sighted 
drivers weren't as quick to let go of their preconceptions," said Jannaman 
of Hendersonville, Tenn. "The blind drivers actually performed better than 
their sighted counterparts. An overwhelming sense of accomplishment overcame 
me as I simply rode along while Wes and Mark successfully navigated the 
driving course without my assistance."

Early models of the Blind Driver Challenge vehicle relied more on 
technologies for fully autonomous vehicles, previously developed by Virginia 
Tech mechanical engineering students as part of the DARPA Urban Challenge. 
The student team redesigned the vehicle so that the blind motorist has 
complete control of the driving process, as any sighted driver would.

This change in approach led to new challenges, including how to effectively 
convey the high bandwidth of information from the laser sensors scanning the 
vehicle's surrounding environment to the driver fast enough and accurate 
enough to allow safe driving. As a result, the team developed non-visual 
interface technologies, including a vibrating vest for feedback on speed, a 
click counter steering wheel with audio cues, spoken commands for 
directional feedback, and a unique tactile map interface that utilizes 
compressed air to provide information about the road and obstacles 
surrounding the vehicle.

Riccobono knows of mock ups and non-working "blind driver car" set-ups from 
the past, but says this is the first working vehicle to put the blind and 
visually impaired in control of the steering wheel. "Blind people have 
brains, the capacity to make decisions," he said. "Blind people want to live 
independent lives, why would they not want to drive?"

Even once the technology is perfected, laws now barring the blind from 
driving and public perception must be changed, Riccobono said. "This is the 
piece that we know will be the most difficult," said Riccobono, adding that 
the car must be near-perfected before the National Federation of the Blind 
can truly push the car to law-makers and the general public. He said this 
effort will take millions of dollars in development.

The 2009-10 student team already is planning major changes to the 
technology, including replacing the dirt buggy vehicle with a fully electric 
car commonly used by traffic officers in downtown city centers. The 
all-electric vehicle would reduce the vibration which can cause problems to 
the laser sensor, and it will provide clean electric power for the computing 
units and that is better for the environment.

Hong is a National Science Foundation CAREER Award recipient. He received 
his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of 
Wisconsin-Madison in 1994, and his master's and doctoral degrees in 
mechanical engineering from Purdue University in 1999 and 2002, 
respectively.

IMAGE INFORMATION: Mark Riccobono, executive director of the National 
Federation of the Blind's Jernigan Institute, drives the Virginia Tech Blind 
Driver Challenge vehicle through an obstacle course of traffic cones on a 
campus parking lot. In the passenger seat is Greg Jannaman, who led the 
student team within the mechanical engineering department during the past 
year, and is monitoring the software of the vehicle..

Contact Steven Mackay at smackay at vt.edu or (540) 231-4787 .