The Faculty of Engineering at Diponegoro University (Undip) officially inaugurated Prof. Dr. Wahyudi, S.T., M.T. as Professor in the field of Control Systems and Instrumentation on Tuesday, January 27, 2026, at the Prof. Soedarto Building, Undip Tembalang Campus. Prof. Wahyudi is a lecturer in the Department of Electrical Engineering who was appointed as a Full Professor in the field of Control Systems and Instrumentation.
In his inauguration speech entitled “Integration of Control Systems and Artificial Intelligence in the Development of Assistive Devices for the Visually Impaired,” Prof. Wahyudi presented his research results related to the development of a prototype mobility aid for the visually impaired based on Artificial Intelligence (AI). Prof. Wahyudi explained that, in general, mobility aids for the visually impaired can be classified into two types based on their functions. The first type focuses on mobility assistance, which is typically combined with sensor technology to detect obstacles. Meanwhile, the second type is designed to assist with communication and information access, which extensively utilizes artificial intelligence technology in the speech conversion process.
In his research, Prof. Wahyudi combined AI technology with sensor cameras to produce a mobility aid that can detect and classify objects around the user. The prototype integrates a time-of-flight camera, webcam, K-means algorithm, Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), and concurrent programming. The developed tool is capable of processing sensor data into audiospatial and audio descriptions, so that users are not only assisted in their mobility, but also obtain information about objects that obstruct their path.
“The design of the blind aid prototype was created through two main processes, namely the process of detecting obstacles using a time-of-flight camera to generate information in the form of position and distance, which is then conveyed to the user in the form of audiospatial information. The process of object recognition is carried out using a webcam, which is then conveyed to the user through audiodescription,” explained Prof. Wahyudi.
In the future, Prof. Wahyudi plans to continue developing the prototype so that it can operate at a higher processing speed. In addition, development will also focus on the integration of the Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) as a navigation system and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for text-based object recognition.
With the appointment of Prof. Dr. Wahyudi, S.T., M.T. as a professor, the Department of Electrical Engineering at Undip now has two professors. This achievement is expected to further strengthen the academic and research contributions of the Department of Electrical Engineering in the development of innovative technology and the improvement of education quality at the Faculty of Engineering, Diponegoro University.