“Many blind people prefer the concept of driving as opposed to being driven,” says Kimberly Wenger, senior and student leader of the Virginia Tech Blind Driver Challenge project. “There’s really no reason the blind can’t drive someday, and they’re already proving it in our semi-autonomous vehicle. The next step is perfecting the technology so they can drive on the open road without endangering anyone. Admittedly, that’s a big challenge.”
If you’re wondering how is this going to work, here is the explanation: Virginia Tech has a specially equipped dune buggy in which the blind have full control of the steering, accelerator, and brakes and they follow computer-generated steering commands like “two clicks to the right,” delivered through headphones. The steering wheel emits an audible click for every five degrees it’s turned. A vibrating vest signals the driver to slow or stop. The on-board computer produces directions based on data about the car’s surroundings collected by a laser on the front of the car.
The Virginia Tech BDC team used SolidWorks to perfect the design of the click steering wheel. “We used SolidWorks to design numerous concepts for the click wheel’s internal mechanisms and to conduct several structured design reviews,” said Wenger. “SolidWorks helped us visualize everyone’s ideas, narrow them down, detect interference, and choose the best design. Thanks to the reviews, our consensus design has worked flawlessly from day one.”
Soon blind people will be able to make driving decisions on their own with the help of a breakthrough device called AirPix, that gives drivers a real-time tactile topographical map of their surroundings so they can make their own decisions on turning, slowing down, or stopping.
“SolidWorks has an easy and intuitive user interface that is ideal for concept generation, visualization, and virtual prototyping,” said Wenger. “It’s making our design decisions much more objective, and helping us eliminate errors. Every day we get a little closer to our ultimate goal.”
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