Apprentices working at Edinburgh-based aerospace company, Leonardo, have adapted sensor technology to help Royal Blind School pupils who are wheelchair users to navigate around the school more easily.
The apprentices worked with the specialist school in Morningside to help find a way for vision impaired users of a computerised Smart Platform power wheelchair to navigate their way to the right classroom.
Apprentices Macaulay Jarrett, Gavin Davis, Luke Smith and Scott Robertson adapted existing sensor technology, including radio frequency tabs similar to those found in central locking keys for cars and passports and positioned them at predetermined places on the white track which the Smart platform follows. A sensor attached to the Smart wheelchair will pick up the signal from these tabs and will process it and announce the name of the classroom the student has arrived at.
Clare Mackenzie, occupational therapist at the school, first decided to approach Leonardo apprentices due to her existing knowledge of the sensor technology expertise at the business through her husband, who works at the company as a lead engineer.