Smart Walking Stick for the Blind

Updated: Jun 23

The white cane is the most common #smartwalkingstick used by the visually impaired to scan for the surroundings for directions and obstacles. In this article, you will learn to design a smart walking stick for the blind using Arduino.

Hardware Components - Smart Walking Stick

1. Arduino Uno:

It is an open-source microcontroller board that can be programmed according to user requirements. #ArduinoUno board is used for interfacing the input-output elements to construct a project. | Smart Walking Stick |

Arduino Uno

2. Buzzer:

The buzzer produces an alarm tone. The piezoelectric material in the buzzer when subjected to alternating current expands and contracts rhythmically following the current thus, emitting an alarm tone.

Buzzer

3. Ultrasonic sensor:

This sensor measures the distance of an object by emitting ultrasonic waves through a transmitter. Its receiver receives the reflected signal and converts it into an electrical signal.

In this project, we use an ultrasonic sensor to measure the distance of the target object from the person using the smart blind stick.

Ultrasonic Sensor

4. Vibration motor:

A vibration motor is a DC motor that vibrates when it receives a signal. It comes in a compact size and alerts the user. In this project, we can use a vibration motor in case the user misses the buzzer alert.

Vibration Motor

5. Jumper wires:

Jumper wires have connectors and pins that are used to connect different components on a breadboard.

Jumper Wires

Circuit Connections:

Circuit without a vibration motor:

Circuit Connection without a vibration motor

Connect Vcc of the ultrasonic sensor to 5V of the Arduino.
Connect the ground of the ultrasonic sensor to the ground pin of the Arduino.
Connect the trigger pin of the ultrasonic sensor to the D7 of the Arduino.
Connect the echo pin of the ultrasonic sensor to the D8 of the Arduino.
Connect Vcc of the buzzer to the D13 of the Arduino.
Connect the ground of The buzzer to the ground of the Arduino.

Circuit with a vibration motor:

Circuit connection with a vibration motor

Do all the connections mentioned for the circuit without a vibration motor.
Connect the positive pin of the vibration motor to the D3 of the Arduino.
Connect the ground pin of the buzzer to the ground of the Arduino.

Code:

Smart Walking Stick for the Blind - Project Code

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Declare the pins connected to the Arduino board.
In void setup(), set the pin mode for the necessary input and output pins. Also, give the command for the start of the serial monitor.
In void loop(), the trigger pin is set to low initially. Then, the trigger pin is set to high for 10 microseconds.
Further, the pulseIn() function deduces the signal received from the ultrasonic sensor when the echo is high. This value is stored in the duration variable. The duration is then multiplied by the speed of light in cm/s and is halved. This calculation is done to convert the duration to the distance between the user and the target object.
Print the value for the distance on the serial monitor.
Using the if-else condition and tone() function, set the buzzer value high for the object in the range of 15cm, low otherwise.

Working:

The picture shows a smart walking stick for the blind. Here, an ultrasonic sensor emits the signal and receives the reflected signal. This data is converted to the distance between the user and the target object. For the set conditions, the user will receive a buzzer alert following the distance of the object from them. The model consists of a circuit without a vibration motor.