Environment perception is crucial for the safe navigation of vehicles and robots to detect obstacles in their surroundings. It is also of paramount interest for navigation of human beings in reduced visibility conditions. Obstacle avoidance systems typically combine multiple sensing technologies (i.e., LiDAR, radar, ultrasound and visual) to detect various types of obstacles under different lighting and weather conditions, with the drawbacks of a given technology being offset by others. These systems require powerful computational capability to fuse the mass of data, which limits their use to high-end vehicles and robots. INSPEX delivers a low-power, small-size and lightweight environment perception system that is compatible with portable and/or wearable applications. This requires miniaturizing and optimizing existing range sensors of different technologies to meet the user’s requirements in terms of obstacle detection capabilities. These sensors consist of a LiDAR, a time-of-flight sensor, an ultrasound and an ultra-wideband radar with measurement ranges respectively of 10 m, 4 m, 2 m and 10 m. Integration of a data fusion technique is also required to build a model of the user’s surroundings and provide feedback about the localization of harmful obstacles. As primary demonstrator, the INSPEX device will be fixed on a white cane.

Abstract-The INSPEX H2020 project main objective is to integrate automotive-equivalent spatial exploration and obstacle detection functionalities into a portable/wearable multi-sensor, miniaturised, low power device. The INSPEX system will detect and localise in real-time static and mobile obstacles under various environmental conditions in 3D. Potential applications range from safer human navigation in reduced visibility, small robot/drone obstacle avoidance systems to navigation for the visually/mobility impaired, this latter being the primary use-case considered in the project.

Inspired by the abilities of contemporary autonomous vehicles to navigate with a high degree of effectiveness, the INSPEX Project 1 seeks to minaturise the sensing and processing technology involved, to produce devices which can help navigate within an environment in a smart way, enabling their use in a wide variety of applications. The project is focused on producing an advanced prototype for a device which can be attached to a VIB person's white cane, and which, through the use of a variety of minaturised sensors, and of the processing of their data via sophisticated algorithms, can offer the user a richer palette of information about the environment than the use of the unadorned white cane alone could furnish. The various strands contributing to the project are overviewed, and the prospects for further enhancements are contemplated.