Date of Award

4-19-2019

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Systems Engineering

First Advisor

Xian Liu

Abstract

Grasping a target object is very challenging to a visually impaired individual due to vision loss. An object grasping task can be divided into three sub-tasks: detecting the target ob-ject, maintaining hand-object alignment while approaching the object, and taking a hold of it. Vision loss makes the first two sub-tasks impossible. To help a visually impaired per-son re-gain the capability in performing the two sub-tasks, a hand-worn assistive device is designed. The device consists of control and visual guidance. Control involves an exo-skeleton mechanism worn by user’s right hand. The mechanism, driven by two micro-motors, drags the thumb to move to the desired direction. The visual guidance system us-es a 3D camera to detect and locate the target object. The device including hardware and software, has been prototyped and tested by preliminary experiments. The results verified the usability of the proposed system in assisting a blind individual with object grasping.

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