A composite algorithm for 3D ranging airborne ultrasonic

Airborne ultrasound system based on pulse-echo technique have been previously used to determine 2D positions of targets in a pick-and-place manner which is commonly used in robotics. Here, a 3D generalisation of this system is presented, consisting of a planar array transducer and a composite algorithm of coarse envelope beamforming and triangulation. Short pulses are transmitted and the returned signals can be envelope detected. Therefore, the only information available is the time of flight. This coarse envelope beamforming algorithm and the time of flight information, are applied to increase the resolution of the measurements. The resulting readings lie within the expected values of range resolution according to the Rayleigh parameter /spl square/. A theoretical method combining a composite algorithm of coarse envelope beamforming and a numerical analysis method is proposed to design experimental 3D ranging systems.