System integration for a biomimetic dynamic sonar head

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Horseshoe bats (Rhinolophidae) have dynamic biosonar systems with interfaces for ultrasonic emission/reception that deform while diffracting the outgoing/incoming sound waves. This peripheral dynamics has been shown to enhance sensory information encoding. To investigate the properties and potential uses of these system features in the real world, a biomimetic sonar head is being developed with the goal of mimicking as much of the bats' peripheral dynamics as faithfully as possible. Further constraints on this development were suitability for integration with mobile platforms and support for interactive quantitative/in-depth experimentation. Flexible noseleaf and pinna shapes along with an actuation system have been designed to mimic the static geometry of the respective structures in bats as well as several of the animals' degrees of freedom in deforming them. The electrical subsystem has been designed to support high-quality ultrasound generation and recording. Generation of all source voltages and signal amplification have been consolidated into a single circuit board to reduce weight and complexity of the overall system. The frame has been altered to reduce weight and add modularity to the noseleaf and pinna elements. The software architecture is based on a back-end (Python, LabVIEW) combined with a flexible front-end (MATLAB) for experimental design and data analysis.Horseshoe bats (Rhinolophidae) have dynamic biosonar systems with interfaces for ultrasonic emission/reception that deform while diffracting the outgoing/incoming sound waves. This peripheral dynamics has been shown to enhance sensory information encoding. To investigate the properties and potential uses of these system features in the real world, a biomimetic sonar head is being developed with the goal of mimicking as much of the bats' peripheral dynamics as faithfully as possible. Further constraints on this development were suitability for integration with mobile platforms and support for interactive quantitative/in-depth experimentation. Flexible noseleaf and pinna shapes along with an actuation system have been designed to mimic the static geometry of the respective structures in bats as well as several of the animals' degrees of freedom in deforming them. The electrical subsystem has been designed to support high-quality ultrasound generation and recording. Generation of all source voltages and sign...