More than technology: how students support the disability community through engineering design

Guided by the 2025 International Day of Persons with Disabilities theme, which champions disability-inclusive societies for social progress, ZJUI student innovators have channeled their skills in cutting-edge engineering and human-centered design. They have harnessed this fusion to tackle real-world challenges with high-impact, practical solutions.

Robotic arm integrated into wheelchair with MR interface
(LU Xingru, WANG Yilin, YANG Yinuo, LIN Yunyi)

Wheelchair users face numerous challenges when trying to reach objects that are beyond their reach. Their fixed forward-facing perspective further limits their awareness of the surrounding environment. To address this issue, the students designed a solution that integrates a robotic arm with a Mixed Reality (MR) interface onto a wheelchair platform. This system expands the user's field of vision via a camera. It also assists with tasks such as retrieving objects and pressing buttons. These features enable more independent and efficient interaction with the environment. Ultimately, this enhances users' autonomy in daily life.

The system is equipped with a depth camera. It transmits real-time footage to the MR interface, allowing wheelchair users to clearly observe their surroundings, including blind spots behind them. The robotic arm is mounted at the rear of the wheelchair and can be directly controlled through the MR interface. This supports assistive actions like pressing buttons and accessing distant objects. By strengthening environmental awareness and boosting independent mobility, this system offers users a more intuitive and convenient way to engage with their environment.

Smart assistive walking stick for the visually impaired
(ZHOU Haoyang, FU Sanhe, HUANG Yihan, ZHANG Juecheng)

There are over 250 million visually impaired people worldwide, and they face significant challenges to their independence and safety when traveling. Traditional white canes are increasingly inadequate for the complex traffic scenarios of modern cities-particularly at intersections with heavy traffic and no audio cues, where safety risks are particularly acute. This critical pain point has become a core barrier to the mobility of the visually impaired community.

To address this, the solution adopts multi-sensor fusion technology, integrating lidar-based environmental perception, high-precision GPS positioning, and computer vision-based intelligent recognition. Not only does it enable full-range obstacle avoidance and path planning, but it also focuses specifically on overcoming key challenges in intersection navigation, such as traffic light recognition and dynamic vehicle detection. By providing real-time, reliable navigation and decision-making support in complex environments, the system greatly enhances the independence, efficiency, and sense of safety for visually impaired travelers.

Long-horizon task completion with robotic arms human instructions
(GUO Bingjun, LONG Qi, WU Qingran, CHEN Yuxi)

Robotic arms are becoming increasingly vital in daily life assistance, and their significance is particularly pronounced for people with limited mobility. For this group, many seemingly simple daily tasks often prove difficult to complete independently. However, for robotic arms to truly excel at daily assistance, they must not only accurately interpret human instructions but also possess the ability to adapt to dynamically changing environments and execute operations stably and reliably in multi-step tasks.

This solution aims to develop a robotic arm system for assisting people with limited mobility in daily tasks. Designed to both precisely follow human commands and flexibly adapt to various changes in real-world environments, the system provides tangible support for users' independent living.

Sensing your heartbeat and others
(WU Qiyang, CHEN Xin, WANG Xuanqi, HAN Yukai)

As the aging population accelerates and the number of elderly people living alone increases, the demand for home-based health monitoring has become increasingly urgent. Traditional monitoring methods primarily rely on wearable devices and cameras, but they suffer from two core drawbacks: first, they require users to wear equipment or be deployed in specific locations, often imposing burdens and inconveniences; second, the relatively high cost of such devices limits their popularity and accessibility.

To address this, the solution proposes an innovative monitoring system based on WiFi signals, aiming to achieve accurate, real-time, and non-contact monitoring of respiratory status in home environments. Leveraging a high-sensitivity network card to extract Channel State Information (CSI), the system separates subtle human motion features through signal processing algorithms, then synchronously visualizes the analyzed breathing rate via LED indicators. To verify monitoring accuracy, traditional chest strap devices are used as the ground truth for comparative validation. Ultimately, this approach delivers a reliable, intuitive, and easy-to-deploy home health monitoring system, providing a lightweight solution for home health management, particularly for elderly people living alone.

A smart glove for Human-Computer lnreraction (HCI)
(DONG Hongwei, SUN Shanbin, ZHANG Jinhao, SHI Zhan)

As smart devices become widely prevalent and emerging technologies like Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) develop rapidly, the demand for more natural and intuitive human-computer interaction (HCI) methods has grown increasingly urgent. Traditional interaction devices such as keyboards and mice are inefficient in certain scenarios, while voice or visual interaction is prone to interference from environmental noise, lighting, and other factors, making it difficult to achieve accurate and reliable operation anytime, anywhere.

In response, this solution leverages sensors to capture hand gestures in real time and map them to device commands, delivering a more intuitive and efficient control experience. Notably, the solution fully addresses the needs of people with disabilities, serving as an alternative or supplement to traditional input methods. By effectively lowering the operation threshold, it further expands the inclusive boundaries of human-computer interaction.

Each of these innovations demonstrates ZJUI's unwavering commitment to using innovation to benefit society and enable people with disabilities to live more independent, dignified, and inclusive lives.

Adapted and translated from the article written by the interviewee
Translator: SEE TZE YING
Photo: The interviewee
Editor: HAN Xiao