Multielement ultrasonic system for robotic navigation

In this paper an ultrasonic multisensor acquisition and processing system with up to 32 air-ultrasound transducers in the frequency range of 40-200 kHz is presented. The system was developed for an obstacle avoidance applications in the robotics field. The acquisition and processing capability of the equipment (based on the digital signal processor TMS320C25 and can sample up to five parallel channels) allows the robot to perform tasks of different difficulty levels, from target-ranging to pattern recognition. As an example of application, a neural approach to a typical problem in the robotic navigation field is presented, which highlights the system-flexibility features.