Comparative Study on the Performance of an Ultrasonic Sensor and a Laser Sensor for Detecting Obstacles of Different Materials in an Assistive Navigation Application for Visually Impaired Individuals

In an attempt to provide autonomy and mobility to a visually impaired per-on through an assisted system, such as in this case the robotic prototype, which integrates electronic devices with a system of obstacle detection mechanisms, information transfer, and communication, it is necessary for the functionality of all devices to be within an accepted minimum operational range. In other words, their efficiency (of the sensors) should be more accurate than achieving an approximate estimation. The aforementioned implies discarding the use of the HC-SR04 sensor and implementing the VL53L0X laser sensor instead. In order to demonstrate the validation of both sensors, they will be characterized through measurement tests. These tests, conducted to select the sensors to be used in the prototype construction, will show the need for precision to guarantee safety in the implementation of the proposed model (prototype). A detailed description of the tests that will be carried out to obtain experimental data on the different sensors will be presented, followed by an analysis of the results. This analysis will include data that reveals interesting details and provides demonstrable values.