Stair Climbing Robot Based on Convolutional Neural Networks for Visual Impaired

When a person loses the sense of sight, in general, it is suggested to use a white cane to perform daily activities. However, using a white cane limits the movement of a person. In addition, guide dogs can be served in this impairment. However, the acquisition and maintenance of a guide dog is extremely high for people in development countries. In this regard, this paper presents a proof-of-concept of a low-cost robotic system able to guide a visual impaired, as a guide dog. The robot is specially designed for climbing stairs at indoors, and it uses convolutional neural networks (CNN) for both object detection and hand gesture recognition for special instructions from the user. Experimental results showed that our prototype robot can climb stairs with 86.7% of efficiency in concrete stair surfaces. Also, the visual representation by CNN performed more than 98% accuracy. © 2019 IEEE.