Recognition resolution enhancement of ultrasonic sensors via multiple steps of transmitter voltages

Ultrasonic sensors are widely used in various applications due to advantages of low cost, simplicity in construction, mechanical robustness, and little environmental restriction in usage. But the main purposes of the noncontact sensing are rather narrowly confined within object detection and distance measurement. For the application of object recognition, ultrasonic sensors exhibit several shortcomings of poor directionality which results in low spatial resolution of objects, and specularity which gives frequent erroneous range readings. To resolve these problems in object recognition, an array of the sensor has been used. To improve the spatial resolution, more number of sensors are used in essence throughout the various devices of the sensor arrays. Under the disguise of a fixed number of the sensors, the array can be shifted mechanically in several steps. In this paper we propose a practical sensor resolution enhancement method using an electronic circuit accompanying the sensor array. The circuit changes the transmitter output voltage in several steps. Using the known sensor characteristics, a set of different return echo signals provide enhanced spatial resolution. The improvement is obtained with neither the cost of the increased number of the sensors nor extra mechanical devices.