Assistive Robots for Persons with Visual Impairments: Current Research and Open Challenges

Abstract

Robots have the potential to support persons with different abilities, including individuals with blindness or visual impairments (BVI). This paper aims to investigate the current developments in robotic research that focus on BVI robotic users and identifying what are the open challenges. This paper addresses the following research questions; (1) What research has been performed in the past two years on robotic systems that help persons with visual impairments? and (2) What are the challenges the assistive robots for persons with visual impairments face in real-world environments? Answering these questions will bring us a step closer to inclusive and accessible robots.