TIME OF FLIGHT RANGE FINDING WITH AN ADAPTIVE TRANSMIT PULSE AND ADAPTIVE RECEIVER PROCESSING

• Main Authors: PRZYBYLA RICHARD, GUEDES ANDRE, SHELTON STEFON, KIANG MENG-HSIUNG, HORSLEY DAVID
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 12.11.2015
• Subjects: ACOUSTICS; ACOUSTICS NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; ANALOGOUS ARRANGEMENTS USING OTHER WAVES; DETERMINING DISTANCE OR VELOCITY BY USE OF RADIO WAVES; LOCATING OR PRESENCE-DETECTING BY USE OF THE REFLECTION ORRERADIATION OF RADIO WAVES; MEASURING; METHODS OR DEVICES FOR PROTECTING AGAINST, OR FOR DAMPING,NOISE OR OTHER ACOUSTIC WAVES IN GENERAL; MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS; PHYSICS; RADIO DIRECTION-FINDING; RADIO NAVIGATION; SOUND-PRODUCING DEVICES; TESTING

A rangefinding apparatus and method are disclosed. The apparatus may include at least one processor and memory operably connected to the at least one processor. The memory may store instructions that, when executed, cause the apparatus to iterate a target-acquisition process until a target is identified and then iterate a target-tracking process after the target has been identified. The target-acquisition process may include transmitting a short ultrasonic pulse, transmitting a long ultrasonic pulse, and listening for one or more echoes corresponding to the short or long ultrasonic pulses. The target-tracking process may include steering an optimized ultrasonic pulse toward the target, listening for an echo corresponding to the optimized ultrasonic pulse, and calculating, based on the echo, an updated location for the target.