Scattering-coded architectured boundary for computational sensing of elastic waves

Abstract

Object localization through active elastic waves is a crucial technology but generally requires a transducer array with complex hardware. Although computational sensing can overcome the shortcomings of transducer array by merging artificially designed structures into the sensing process, coding spatial elastic waves for active object sensing is still a knowledge gap. Here, we propose a scattering-coded architectured boundary composed of randomly distributed scatterers for computational sensing of objects with a single transducer. The multiple scattering effects of the architectured boundary introduce complexity into scattered fields to achieve a highly uncorrelated scattering coding of Lamb waves, thereby eliminating the ambiguity of the object location information. We demonstrate that the object locations can be uniquely identified by using the scattering-coded architectured boundary. The proposed strategy opens avenues for artificially designed boundaries with the capability of information coding and identification, providing important applications in wave sensing such as human-machine interactions and structural monitoring. • An architectured boundary is proposed for object localization with a single transducer • Complex disturbances caused by multiple scattering enable spatial scattering coding • Object locations are identified by using a computational sensing algorithm • A type of touchscreen with an architectured boundary is designed for interactive input Jiang et al. propose a scattering-coded architectured boundary composed of randomly distributed scatterers for computational sensing of objects with a single transducer. This strategy provides avenues for artificially designed boundaries with the capability of information coding, boosting wave-sensing applications such as structural monitoring and human-machine interactions.