International Institute Of Information Technology,

Bhubaneswar

Branch: Computer Engineering(CE)

Department Of Electronics and Telecommunication

​__________________________________________

Smart Blind Stick using Arduino

__________________________________________

B516001 Abhisek Sahoo

B516004 Aditya Prakash

April 10, 2019

Report

1.Project Objective :
To assist a blind person in walking
Humans are not disabled. A person can never be broken. Our built environment,
our technologies, is broken and disabled. We the people need not accept our
limitations but can transfer disability through technological Innovation. With this
in mind, we used the power of Arduino and simple sensors to build a Blind man’s
stick that could perform more than just a stick for visually impaired persons.

2.1 Components used :

1. Arduino Nano
2. Ultrasonic Sensor (HC - SR04)
3. LDR
4. Buzzer and LED
5. 7805
6. 433MHz RF transmitter and receiver
7. Resistors
8. Capacitors
9. Push button
10.Breadboard
11.Connecting wires
12.9V batteries
2.2 Details about the Components
2.2.1. Arduino nano :
Arduino Nano is a small, compatible, flexible and breadboard friendly
Microcontroller board, developed by Arduino.cc in Italy, based on ATmega328p.

- ​It comes with an operating voltage of 5V, however, the input voltage can vary
from 7 to 12V.
- ​Arduino Nano Pinout contains 14 digital pins, 8 analog Pins, 2 Reset Pins & 6
Power Pins.
- Functions like pinMode() and digitalWrite() are used to control the operations of
digital pins while analogRead() is used to control analog pins.
- Arduino Nano comes with a crystal oscillator of frequency 16 MHz. It is used to
produce a clock of precise frequency using constant voltage.
- ​Flash memory is 16KB or 32KB that all depends on the Atmega board .The 2KB
of memory out of total flash memory is used for a bootloader.
- The SRAM can vary from 1KB or 2KB and EEPROM is 512 bytes or 1KB for
Atmega168 and ​Atmega328​ respectively.

2.2.2 Ultrasonic Sensor :

- U​ltrasonic sensors measure distance by using ultrasonic waves. The sensor
head emits an ultrasonic wave and receives the wave reflected back from the
target. Ultrasonic Sensors measure the distance to the target by measuring the
time between the emission and reception.

- ​An optical sensor has a transmitter and receiver, whereas an ultrasonic sensor
uses a single ultrasonic element for both emission and reception. In a reflective
model ultrasonic sensor, a single oscillator emits and receives ultrasonic waves
alternately. This enables miniaturization of the sensor head.
2.2.3 RF transmitter and receiver :

- It must operate over a certain distance and transfer a certain amount of

information within a data rate. The RF modules are very small in dimension and
have a wide operating voltage range i.e. 3V to 12V.

- The transmitter draws no power when transmitting logic zero while fully
suppressing the carrier frequency thus consume significantly low power in battery
operation. When logic one is sent carrier is fully on to about 4.5mA with a 3 volts
power supply. The data is sent serially from the transmitter which is received by
the tuned receiver. Transmitter and the receiver are duly interfaced to two
microcontrollers for data transfer.

2.3 CONSTRUCTION:

This project requires two simple circuits. One is the main circuit which will be
mounted on the blind man’s stick. The other is a small remote RF transmitter
circuit which will be used to locate the main circuit. The main circuit’s diagram is
as shown below:
 As we can see an Arduino Nano is used to control all the sensors. The
complete board is powered by a 9V battery which is regulated to +5V using a 7805
Voltage regulator. The Ultrasonic sensor is powered by 5V and the trigger and
Echo pin is connected to Arduino nano pin 3 and 2 as shown above. The LDR is
connected with a resistor of value 10K to form a Potential divider and the
difference in voltage is read by Arduino ADC pin A1. The ADC pin A0 is used to
read the signal from the RF receiver. The output of the board is given by the
Buzzer which is connected to pin 12.

The RF remote circuit is shown below. Its working is also further explained.
Normally while using this 433 MHz module requires an Encoder and Decoder or
two MCU to work. But, in our application we just need the receiver to detect if the
transmitter is sending some signals. So the Data pin of the transmitter is connected
to Ground or V​cc​ of the supply.

Now, whenever the button is pressed the Receiver output some constant ADC
value repeatedly. This repetition cannot be observed when the button is not
pressed. So we write the Arduino program to check for repeated values to detect if
the button is pressed. So that is how a Blind person can track his stick.

All the connections are established on the breadboard according to the circuit
diagrams as shown earlier.

2.4 WORKING OF THE MODEL:

The working principle of the whole project is simple. Here we are reading the dtaa
from all the sensors in an infinite loop. We begin by reading the data of Ultrasonic
sensor for the distance, LDR for light intensity and RF signal to check if the button
is pressed for locating the blind stick.

First, the data from the remote signal is read and stored in a variable ​similar_count
to check how many times the same values are being repeated from the RF receiver.
This repetition occurs only when the button is pressed. We have set a trigger value
of more than two to fire off the buzzer.

Next, the intensity of the light around the blind man is assessed. The buzzer beeps
when the intensity is too dark (i.e, less than 200 here) with a particular frequency
and also when the intensity is too high (i.e, more than 800 here) with another
frequency.

Finally, the distance from any obstacle is measured. There will be no alarm if the
measured distance is more than 50cm. But, if it is less than 50cm the alarm will
start by beeping the buzzer. As the object gets closer to the buzzer the beeping
interval will also decrease. The ​closer the object is, the faster the buzzer will
beep​.

Distance can be calculated using:

D = ½ x Time-Duration x Ultrasonic Speed

3. FUTURE WORK:

For the future work, a vibrator can be used to notify the person on any caution if he
is blind as well as deaf. And also the RF transmitter and receiver part of the circuit
can be altered to work better with the whole project. Also the design of the project
needs to be changed to make it more energy efficient, so that it does not have to
remain switched on the whole time before the blind person uses it.
4. CONCLUSION:

Hence the project works perfectly fine in the presence of ambient light , notifying
the blind person of the obstacles ahead of him. Also it helps him decide the
conditions outside using the light sensor, whether it’s dark or it’s very bright.
Lastly, the RF transmitter and receiver helps him locate the blind stick, even in the
dark with the help of a remote and buzzer.