Accurate ranging of multiple objects using ultrasonic sensors

The authors propose a measurement setup consisting of a number of ultrasonic sensors used in parallel to perform triangulation measurements. The sensor system is based on two ideas. The first idea was to use signal processing techniques borrowed from existing radar and sonar systems. This allows the accurate determination of the position of multiple objects. Processing data in real time demands a fairly powerful processing system. The second idea was to assign a microprocessor to each transducer. To support the use of multiple sensors in the final measurement setup, transputers were used as processing elements as they offer easy scalability because of their serial links. This sensor measured the distance to multiple objects very accurately and with a resolution of 2 cm. It is shown that these techniques could be implemented in a cost-effective manner