• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
• /
• v.17 no.12
• /
• pp.1240-1247
• /
• 2011

The localization of mobile robot in environment is a major concern in mobile robot navigation. So, many kinds of localization techniques have been researched for several years. Among them, the positioning system using ultrasound has received attention. Most of these ultrasonic positioning systems to synchronize the transmitters and receivers are used for RF (Radio Frequencies). However, due to the use of RF, the interference problems can not be avoided and the performance of radio frequencies directly affects the positioning performance. So we proposed the ultrasonic positioning system without synchronizing RF. The proposed system is based on existing USAT (Ultrasonic Satellite System) adopted infrastructure transmitting type, and consists of transmitter and receiver synchronizing modules instead of the radio frequency transmitters and receiver. The ultrasonic transmitters and receivers are synchronized individually by the transmitter and receiver synchronizing modules. In order to calculate the bias between the transmitter and receiver synchronizing modules, new positioning algorithm similar to GPS was proposed. The positioning performance of the improved USAT without synchronizing RF and the validity of the proposed positioning algorithm are verified and evaluated by experiments.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
• /
• v.9 no.2
• /
• pp.145-151
• /
• 2003

A global ultrasonic sensor system for self-localization of a mobile robot is proposed in this paper. The global ultrasonic sensor system consists of three or more ultrasonic transmitters fixed at some positions in the world coordinate and receivers in the moving coordinate of a mobile robot. In this global sensor system it is easy to get state vector of the mobile robot in the world coordinate from the distance information between each ultrasonic transmitter and receiver. An extended kalman filter algorithm is used to process the noisy ultrasonic signal and to estimate the state vector. In case of using several independent ultrasonic transmitters, it is necessary to avoid the cross talk among the ultrasonic waves and to synchronize between each ultrasonic transmitter and receiver. The small sized radio frequency modules are adopted to solve the cross talk and the synchronization problem Computer simulation and experiments are carried out to verify the effectiveness of the proposed ultrasonic sensor system.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
• /
• 2002.03a
• /
• pp.221-228
• /
• 2002

Thickness of concrete lining, voids at the back of lining or shotcrete are very important elements for inspecting the safety of tunnels. Therefore, the inspection of tunnel lining structure means to investigate the inner layer boundaries of the structure. For this purpose, seismic reflection survey is the most desirable method if it works in good conditions. However, the conventional seismic reflection method can not be properly used for investigating thin layers in the lining structure. In other words, to detect the inner boundaries, it is desirable for the wavelength of source to be less than the thickness of each layer and for the receiver to be capable of detecting high frequency(ultrasonic) signals. To this end, new appropriate source and receiver devices should be developed above all for the ultrasonic reflection survey. This paper deals primarily with the development of source and receiver devices which are essential parts of field measuring system. Interests are above all centered in both the radiation pattern, energy, frequency content of the source and the directional sensitivity of the receiver. With these newly devised ones, ultrasonic physical modeling has been performed on 3-D physical model composed of bakelite, water-proof and concrete, The measured seismograms showed a clear separation of wave arrivals reflected from each layer boundary. Furthermore, it is noteworthy that reflection events from the bottom of concrete below water-proof could be also observed. This result demonstrates the usefulness of the both devices that can be applied to benefit the ultrasonic reflection survey. Future research is being focus on dealing with at first an optimal configuration of source and receiver devices well coupled to tunnel wall, and further an efficient data control system of practical use.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
• /
• v.13 no.10
• /
• pp.956-961
• /
• 2007

We propose a new distance measurement method and local positioning system for the autonomous mobile robots localization. The distance measurement method is able to measure long-range distances with a high accuracy by using ultrasonic sensors. The time of flight of the ultrasonic waves include various noises is calculated accurately by the proposed period detecting method. The proposed local positioning system is composed of four ultrasonic transmitters and one ultrasonic receiver. The ultrasonic transmitter and receiver are separated but they are synchronized by RF (Radio frequency) signal. The proposed system using ultrasonic waves is represented as USAT(Ultrasonic Satellite System). USAT is able to estimate the position using the least square estimation. The experimental results show that the proposed local positioning system enables to estimate the absolute position precisely.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
• /
• 2002.11c
• /
• pp.411-413
• /
• 2002

In this paper we researched about the ultrasonic cane which aids the blind to walk. We used ultrasonic in recognizing the object and implemented pulse counting method in measuring the distance. The distance measuring system consists of transmitter unit, receiver unit and micro-processor. We used broadband ultrasonic sensors in transmitter unit and receiver unit. The blind is able to recognize the distance between obstacles and himself as it used a vibration system.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
• /
• 2002.07d
• /
• pp.2421-2423
• /
• 2002

A global ultrasonic sensor system for self-localization of an indoor mobile robot is proposed in this paper. By the global ultrasonic sensor system, it is meant several ultrasonic transmitters fixed at some positions in the world coordinate and the receiver in the moving coordinate of a mobile robot. In order to achieve the synchronization between an ultrasonic transmitter and receiver and to avoid the crosstalk among the ultrasonic transmitters, simple radio frequency transmitters and receivers are adopted. Experiments are carried out to verify the effectiveness of the proposed ultrasonic sensor system.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
• /
• v.38 no.10
• /
• pp.1133-1137
• /
• 2014

The ultrasonic nonlinear parameter ${\beta}$ is generally known as an effective parameter for evaluating material degradation. Thus far, most research has been conducted using a contact method. However, since measurement by this contact method is affected by the contact conditions between the transducer and the specimen, additional devices are required to maintain the contact conditions stable during the measurement. To avoid this inconvenience, this paper proposes a noncontact method. In this study, only the receiver was replaced with a noncontact receiver, and then, the ultrasonic nonlinear parameters measured by the newly developed noncontact receiver were compared with those measured by the contact receiver. Results obtained using both these receivers for heat-treated aluminum alloy specimens showed good agreement. From this result, we can confirm that the ultrasonic nonlinear parameter ${\beta}$ can be measured using the proposed noncontact ultrasonic method.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
• /
• 2007.05a
• /
• pp.1155-1160
• /
• 2007

This paper presents position error for the robot localization system using the ultrasonic wave. The distance between the receiver and a beacon can be computed by using the difference between times of flight. The distance information measured by ultrasonic wave has errors. The position is calculated by distances, and this error is caused by distance errors. The position error is different from receiver¡s position. And the position is also calculated by beacon location. This paper calculates worst case position error within measuring area, and finds beacons location to reduce the position error.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
• /
• 2008.04a
• /
• pp.747-752
• /
• 2008

Fiber-guided sensor system using a generator and a receiver can detect the amplitude of load or pressure. However, this type of sensor can show some difficulties in detecting the location of damages and pressure loadings. To overcome this weakness of this type, the ultrasonic active fiber sensor, which has an integrated ultrasonic generator and sensing part, was developed in this study. By using this sensor system, the location of mechanical loads can be exactly detected. Moreover, the ultrasonic active fiber sensor is more cost-effective than an ultrasonic fiber sensor using two piezoelectric transducers which are used as a generator and a receiver, respectively. Two applications of the ultrasonic active fiber sensor are demonstrated: cure monitoring of lead and measurement of liquid level. Present results showed that the active fiber sensor can be applied for various environmental sensing.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
• /
• v.35 no.3
• /
• pp.284-290
• /
• 1999

This paper describes a Frequency Shift Keying (FSK) modulator and demodulator and the experimented underwater data ommunication equipment to transfer the analog echo signal in real-time from an underwater vehicle to the mother ship. The system consists of an echo signal transfer unit equipped to the vehicle and an ultrasonic receiver equipped on the ship. The former includes an ultrasonic transceiver unit of 180kHz for echo detection and a continuous wave transmitter of 50kHz with a FSK modulator for echo transmission to the ship. The latter includes an ultrasonic receiver of 50kHz and the FSK demodulator. The results of experiment are as follows. 1. The characteristics of the FSK modulating and demodulating circuits designed with the use of C-MOS IC 4046 was good and confirmed its usefulness in underwater data communication system.2. The prototype ultrasonic transceiver unit shows profitable driving power while the pulse duration was short less than 3 msec, but it was found that the driving power is not sufficient while the long pulse duration or continuous wave is used. The gain of the ultrasonic receiver was 80 dB and the receiving bandwidth 700Hz (at - 3 dB point).3. It was found that the system designed by the author has some possibility to use in underwater echo transfer.4. At the FSK modulator, the widths of voltage and frequency which represent linearity were 3.5 V, 1600Hz, respectively, at the FSK demodulator 2.6 V, 700Hz, respectively.