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A Framework for Developing Modular Mobility Aids for People with Visual Impairment: An Indoor Navigation Use Case

Authors:
Florian von Zabiensky
Grigory Fridman
Sebastian Reuter
Oguz Özdemir
Michael Kreutzer
Diethelm Bienhaus

Keywords: ETA, electronic travel aid, mobility aid, ROS 2, ROS, robot operating system, component-based development

Abstract:
Electronic Travel Aids (ETAs) are devices that help people with visual impairments navigate and orient themselves. The development of such devices is often associated with a loss of time in repetitive work, resulting in slow progress in this field. A collaborative community that shares its expertise could accelerate this progress and lead to truly useful and market-ready products for visually impaired people. To make such an exchange efficient, a standardized, component-based ecosystem is required. So far, such an approach for ETAs has not been pursued in the literature and is therefore addressed in this paper. To this end, a model for identifying component boundaries is presented and illustrated by a project in the form of an ultra- wideband indoor navigation system. The advantages of such a component-based development in general are described. In particular, the use of the Robot Operating System 2 (ROS 2) for the implementation is highlighted and its suitability for such an ecosystem is discussed based on practical experience with it.

Pages: 10 to 18

Copyright: Copyright (c) IARIA, 2023

Publication date: April 24, 2023

Published in: conference

ISSN: 2519-8378

ISBN: 978-1-68558-084-1

Location: Venice, Italy

Dates: from April 24, 2023 to April 28, 2023