Budd-e Project developed by PoliMI wins Digital Health Innovation Award

Budd-e, the robot serving the blind, won the ‘Digital Health Innovation' award.

Budd-e is a special self-driving robot that aims to guide blind people inside structured spaces such as hospitals, sports and shopping centres and museums.

Designed and developed by Politecnico di Milano researchers and tested and validated at Ospedale Niguarda, Budd-e is able to learn the routes within the hospital and accompany blind people from the entrance to the destination ward or clinic and back.

People with visual impairment are 4% of the planet population (about 253 Millions). In Italy, they are just under 2 Millions among which 219,174 are absolutely blind (0.3% of the population), while 1,383,922 (2.3%) have a visual residue.

Between 2010 and 2030 an increase of people with visual disabilities is expected by about 25% due to the population aging.

The BUDD-e project involves a multidisciplinary research team (with expertises, e.g., in ICT, Robotics, and Architectural Design).

The project is proposed as a solution to improve accessibility and quality of life for blind people. It was funded by Politecnico di Milano through Polisocial Award 2021, which finances high social impact research with the 5x1000 donated to this university.

The ‘Digital Health Innovation' initiative is organised by Agenas - National Agency for Regional Health Services, in collaboration with SICS - Italian Society for Scientific and Health Communication. Budd-e was awarded in the category “Project innovativeness in relation to the use of ICT - concreteness - sustainability and replicability”.

You can find out more about the Budd-e project here.