Ultrasonic and Infrared Sensors Performance in a Wireless Obstacle Detection System

Ultrasonic (US) and infrared (IR) sensors are broadly used in mobile applications for distance measurements. In this project, an obstacle detection system is built based on these two types of sensors. The system is intended for use by the elderly and people with vision impairment. The prototype developed has been tested to detect obstacles and shows accuracies of 95% to 99% for distance measurements if the sensor circuits are calibrated properly and their output linearized. The system also demonstrates good detection for different obstacle materials (e.g., wood, plastic, mirror, plywood and concretes) and colors. The minimum size of an obstacle that the system can detect is 5 cm x 5 cm.