There are approximately 25 million people with visual impairments in the United States, including 1.3 million who are legally blind. Lack of physical activity is a serious health concern for these individuals, who have fewer opportunities to engage in physical activities that provide the amounts and kinds of stimulation necessary to maintain adequate fitness and to support a healthy lifestyle, for a number of reasons: a lack of exercise partners or sighted guides with whom to exercise; safety concerns; and a general lack of accessible activities to choose from. Running is a popular form of exercise that offers various cardiovascular health benefits, but to run outdoors blind athletes must currently rely on a sighted person to safely guide them using a tether; in addition to the challenge of meeting someone who has a compatible schedule and is willing to exercise together, this dependency on others puts significant constraints on the frequency and duration with which blind individuals can exercise.
It has been suggested that robots may allow individuals with disabilities to lead more independent lives, but the approaches that have previously been explored primarily involve grounded robots moving at slow speeds. Because running is performed at a much faster pace than walking, this exploratory project will investigate the use of an unmanned aerial vehicle (commonly referred to as a drone) to safely guide a blind runner. The blind athlete follows the drone, which is flying ahead of him/her at a fixed distance, on the basis of sound alone, with no human exercise companion and no tether to impede his/her ability to run. The PI will employ a commercially available low-cost quadcopter platform that is controlled using an app on a smartphone, to explore audio feedback mechanisms that allow a blind runner to effectively follow the drone while avoiding obstacles and also correcting for unintentional veering off course.
The PI has secured the collaboration of a blind triathlon athlete as a consultant on this project, to provide feedback on design issues, to participate in early trials, and to help with subject recruitment. This research will make significant contributions in nonvisual Human-Robot Interaction while establishing design principles and laying the foundations for a new kind of assistive technology. Potential future extensions to the work could involve the use of guide drones for other physical activities such as swimming or cycling, where the use of a grounded robot and leash is impractical.
