Building a sonar map in a specular environment using a single mobile sensor

The physical properties of acoustic sensors are exploited to obtain information about the environment for sonar map building. A theoretical formulation for interpreting the sensor databases on the physical principles of acoustic propagation and reflection is presented. A characterization of the sonar scan that allows the differentiation of planes, corners, and edges in a specular environment is described. A single sensor mounted on an autonomous vehicle in a laboratory verifies the technique. The implications for sonar map building and the limitations of differentiating elements with one sensor are discussed