Electrocutaneous Communication in a Guide Dog Robot (MELDOG)

Abstract

Two main problems to be solved in designing truly effective mobility aids for the blind are: 1) to determine what kinds and how many pieces of information are necessary and/or sufficient to mobilize humans, and 2) to establish the optimal coding and display method of the acquired information. If a robot is to be designed which can independently travel from one place to another, using a city map with specific landmarks stored in its memory and obstacle information gathered by the sensors on boarp the, robot, these pieces of information acquired and used by. the robot provide one solution to the first problem. In this paper, a guide dog robot (MELDOG) is described which approaches the first problem in this manner. MELDOG intends to enhance mobility aids for the blind by providing them with the functions of guide dogs, i.e., obedience in navigating its blind master, intelligent disobedience in detecting and avoiding obstacles in his/her path, and companionship in communicating between the master and the robot. For the second problem of displaying the information acquired, the electrocutaneous communication systems being developed, based on the fundamental experiments on electrocutaneous stimulation, are explained. These include constant pulse energy circuits which keep the perceived sensational magnitude constant despite the change of the skin impedance, and two-dimensional phantom sensations which reduce the number of the electrodes used.