3D high accuracy sonar system for multiple mobile vehicles

This paper presents a new ultrasonic sensor, intended to be used by autonomous mobile vehicles for ranging, localization and mapping of indoor environments. A novel coding method guarantees proper work of the sensor even if multiple vehicles move in the same room or with disturbing ultrasonic noise sources. The sonar sensor system consists of one emitter and three receivers and can detect 3D targets in real-time. Compensating the effects of temperature and humidity, the system produces sub-millimeter range and sub-degree bearing accuracies up to a range of 3 meters. The coding method was developed to maximize the number of different coding signals as well as the noise suppression and to minimize the signal processing overhead. This coding method and the sensor configuration, hardware and signal-processing are described and the experimental results are presented.