WalabotEye – Object Tracker with Haptic Feedback

	ADAFRUIT DRV2605L HAPTIC MOTOR CONTROLLER	×	1
	Raspberry Pi 3 Model B	×	1

	5.1V Battery Pack	×	1
	backpack	×	1
	Jumper wires (generic)	×	5

Story

Abstract

What would it be like if you were able to sense objects around you? Meaning you could navigate around the space even if your vision was compromised?

Not just for people who are partially sighted, this idea could also be used by emergency services (namely the fire department) in smoke-filled environments.

Audio is not always the best and most discrete way to give instruction, haptic feedback, on the other hand, will be perfect.

The Basic Idea

I wanted to create a sensor that would be able to pick up obsticles, and then advise the wearer using haptic feedback how far away the object is and whether it’s coming from the left, right or is dead ahead.

For this i’ll need

• A sensor that is able to to see 3D space

• Haptic Feedback driver

• Haptic Feedback Actuator

• An External Battery

• A backpack for it to be strapped to.

Walabot

Want to see through walls? Sense objects in 3D space? Sense if you are breathing from across the room? Well, you’re in luck

The Walabot is whole new way for sensing the space around you using low power radar. This was going to be key to this project, i would be able to take the carteasan (X-Y-Z) coodinates of objects in 3D space, these will be mapped to a series of haptic feedbacks to give the wearer a better understanding of the space around them.

Getting Started

First things first, you will need a computer to drive the Walabot, for this project i’m using a Raspberry Pi 3 (here in refered to at RPi) due to the built in WiFi and general extra oomph.

I bought a 16GB SD card with NOOBS preinstalled to keep things nice and simple, and opted to install Raspian as my Linux OS of choice(if you are unfamiliar with how to install Raspian, please take a moment to have a little read of this) OK, once you have got Raspian running on your RPi, there are a few configuration steps to take to get things ready for our project1. Firstly make sure you are running the latest Kernel version and check for updates by opening a command shell and typing

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