Biomimetic sonar locates and recognizes objects |
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| Authors: | Kuc R |
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| Institution: | Dept. of Electr. Eng., Yale Univ., New Haven, CT ; |
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| Abstract: | An active sonar is described that adaptively changes its location and configuration in response to the echoes it observes in order to locate an object, position it at a known location, and identify it using features extracted from the echoes. The sonar consists of a center transmitter flanked by two receivers that can rotate and is positioned at the end of a robot arm that has five degree-of-freedom mobility. The sonar operates in air using Polaroid transducers that are resonant at 60 kHz with a nominal wavelength equal to 6 mm. The emitted pulse has a short duration with a useful bandwidth extending from 20 to 130 kHz. Using binaural information, the transmitter rotates to position an echo-producing object on its axis to maximize the acoustic intensity incident on the nearest echo-producing feature. The receivers rotate to maximize the echo amplitude and bandwidth. These optimizations are useful for differentiating objects. The system recognizes a collection of ball bearings, machine washers, and rubber O-rings of different sizes ranging from 0.45 to 2.54 cm, some differing by less than 1 mm in diameter. Learning is accomplished by extracting vectors of 32 echo envelope values acquired during a scan in elevation and forming a data base. Recognition is accomplished by comparing a single observed echo vector with the data base to find the least squared error match. A bent-wire paper clip illustrates the recognition of an asymmetric pose-dependent object |
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