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The Virginia Tech Blind Driver Challenge (BDC) was created in response to an initiative
proposed by the National Federation of the Blind. Today, the project exists as a senior design
team comprised of about ten undergraduate students within the Virginia Tech Department of
Mechanical Engineering. The groundbreaking project is one of many within Dr. Dennis Hong's
world-renowned Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory (RoMeLa).
The goal of the project is to create a vehicle that is capable of being operated by a blind driver.
The team's goals adhere closely to the mission statement of the National Federation of
the Blind Jernigan Institute, which "leads the quest to understand the real problems of blindness
and to develop innovative education, technologies, products and services that help the world's
blind to achieve independence." In summary, through the development and integration of novel
non-visual driver interfaces on an existing vehicle platform, Team BDC hopes to provide the
blind with a degree of independence that they have never before experienced.
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