An integrated ultrasonic system for detection, recognition and measurement

Abstract

Vision systems are increasingly being applied to a wide range of manufacturing problems such as component inspection and robot and vehicle guidance. Three dimensional measurement of a target is possible using a vision system, but it requires the use of two or more cameras, multiple images or structured lighting methods. Ultrasonic sensors which are capable of measuring range and bearing of targets are also widely used in navigation and collision avoidance for mobile robots. A system which combines an ultrasonic sensor and a vision sensor can provide complementary sensor data which may be combined to overcome limitations of the individual sensors and provide 3D information about the targets. This paper describes a prototype integrated ultrasonic/vision sensor which uses an off-the-shelf CCD camera and an ultrasonic phased array sensor which enables the camera to be calibrated using data from the ultrasonic sensor, to perform target detection and recognition and also to provide 3D measurement of target position and dimensions.