An RFID-Based Indoor Guiding System for Visually Impaired People

This paper proposes a solution for guiding visually impaired people to reach predefined locations marked with preregistered passive ultra-high-frequency RFID tags inside public buildings (e.g., secretary’s offices and information desks). Our approach employs an unmanned ground vehicle guidance system that assists customers in following predefined routes. The solution also includes a methodology for recording the best routes between all possible locations that may be visited. When reaching the destination, the system will read the tag, extract all the associated information from a database, and translate it into an audio format played into the user’s headphones. The system includes functionalities such as recording and playback of prerecorded routes, voice commands, and audio instructions. By describing the software and hardware architecture of the proposed guiding systems prototype, we show how combining ultra-high-frequency RFID technology with unmanned ground vehicle guiding systems equipped with ultrasonic, grayscale, hall sensors, and voice interfaces allows the development of accessible, low-cost guiding systems with increased functionalities. Moreover, we compare and analyze two different modes of route recording based on line following and manual recording, obtaining a performance regarding route playback with deviations under 10% for several basic scenarios.