Fast Chirped Signals for a TDMA Ultrasonic Indoor Positioning System

In this paper, a new concept for ultrasonic indoor positioning based on instantaneous frequency of ultrasonic signals is presented. Nonlinear phase characteristics of ultrasonic transducers introduce a frequency deviation in ultrasonic signals. By sweeping at very fast rates, a large spike in the deviation is introduced. The artefacts observable in instantaneous frequency estimations are highly localized and present an opportunity for accurate frequency detection. In order to be useful, the artefacts need to take place within the pulse and have sufficient magnitude for accurate processing. The system consists of a transducer transmitter and receiver pair, which have a center frequency of 40kHz and a bandwidth of 460Hz. In order to incorporate more transmitters, a time-division multiple access (TDMA) scheme is applied to ensure orthogonality of signals. The concept includes four ultrasonic transmitters and a single receiver, which can uniquely identify each transmitter by a distinct signal sweep. Linear chirp signals are used to form narrow pulses and ensure no interference in the TDMA scheme. The received signal is amplified and passed through a phase-locked loop (PLL) to detect the chirp signals. Accurate instantaneous frequency detection can be done on the voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) of the PLL, which has a narrower bandwidth than the overall signal sweep. The instantaneous frequency estimation methods are largely explored in this work and consider two methods: the Hilbert transform and a zero-crossings method. This work highlights some of the advantages and disadvantages of both methods. Time of flight (ToF) in this system can ultimately be obtained by considering the instantaneous frequency estimations and the time for one particular frequency to be transmitted and received

A survey on acoustic positioning systems for location-based services

Positioning systems have become increasingly popular in the last decade for location-based services, such as navigation, and asset tracking and management. As opposed to outdoor positioning, where the global navigation satellite system became the standard technology, there is no consensus yet for indoor environments despite the availability of different technologies, such as radio frequency, magnetic field, visual light communications, or acoustics. Within these options, acoustics emerged as a promising alternative to obtain high-accuracy low-cost systems. Nevertheless, acoustic signals have to face very demanding propagation conditions, particularly in terms of multipath and Doppler effect. Therefore, even if many acoustic positioning systems have been proposed in the last decades, it remains an active and challenging topic. This article surveys the developed prototypes and commercial systems that have been presented since they first appeared around the 1980s to 2022. We classify these systems into different groups depending on the observable that they use to calculate the user position, such as the time-of-flight, the received signal strength, or the acoustic spectrum. Furthermore, we summarize the main properties of these systems in terms of accuracy, coverage area, and update rate, among others. Finally, we evaluate the limitations of these groups based on the link budget approach, which gives an overview of the system's coverage from parameters such as source and noise level, detection threshold, attenuation, and processing gain.Agencia Estatal de InvestigaciónResearch Council of Norwa

DISTANCE ESTIMATION USING OFDM SIGNALS FOR ULTRASONIC POSITIONING

This paper describes a method of estimating distance via Time-of-Flight (TOF) measurement using ultrasonic Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) signals. Using OFDM signals allows the signals and their sub-carriers to remain orthogonal to each other while continuously transmitting. This estimation method is based on the change of phase of a traveling wave as it propagates through a medium (air for ultrasonic signals). By using signals containing multiple tones, the phase change between each frequency component is slightly different. This phase difference is dependent on the distance traveled and can thus be used to estimate distance. This paper studies the impact of tone (OFDM sub-carriers) separation on accuracy, maximum distance, and computation for two-tone and three-tone systems. The effects of the transducer channel bandwidth and channel noise are accounted for to build an accurate model for a single-transmitter single-receiver system. This study found that each additional tone provides one extra independent distance measurement which improves accuracy in the presence of noise. The inclusion of an additional tone while maintaining the same overall signal strength shows improved performance with a reduction in standard deviation of estimated distance from 5.64 mm to 3.42 mm in simulation. A four-tone system is also examined to show that this effect holds for additional tones

Indoor Positioning Using Synchronized Ultrasonic OFDMA Signals

This paper proposes a method of short-range indoor localization using differential phase measurements of synchronized two-tone ultrasonic signals in an Orthogonal Frequency Multiple Access (OFDMA) scheme. This indoor positioning system (IPS) operates at an ultrasonic frequency of approximately 40kHz and synchronizes using an infrared signal. The OFDMA scheme allows for a receiver to process the signals from multiple transmitters continuously without the signals interfering with each other. The phases of the signals are measured using Goertzel Filters, allowing for low-complexity frequency content analysis. A MATLAB simulation using the proposed localization method is performed using four transmitter nodes in the corners of a 2.5m x 2.5m room and a receiver node within. The designs for the synchronizing transmitter node and the receiver node are then implemented in hardware and tested at 22cm and 28cm. The work described in this paper found that the proposed IPS functions correctly in simulation, and the hardware implementation of the receiver and transmitter provides accurate distance measurements with variance as low as 0.05cm. This variance is on the same order of magnitude as the wavelength of the ultrasonic signals used. The hardware used in the implementation of this design is low-power, low-cost, and easy to implement, but it carries with it design tradeoffs. The main difficulty introduced by the hardware is the generation of imperfectly orthogonal signals due to a time-discretization error imposed by the clock of the transmitter\u27s general purpose microcontroller. This error is theoretically and experimentally analyzed yielding closely matching values

Ultrasonic stress wave characterization of composite materials

The work reported covers three simultaneous projects. The first project was concerned with: (1) establishing the sensitivity of the acousto-ultrasonic method for evaluating subtle forms of damage development in cyclically loaded composite materials, (2) establishing the ability of the acousto-ultrasonic method for detecting initial material imperfections that lead to localized damage growth and final specimen failure, and (3) characteristics of the NBS/Proctor sensor/receiver for acousto-ultrasonic evaluation of laminated composite materials. The second project was concerned with examining the nature of the wave propagation that occurs during acoustic-ultrasonic evaluation of composite laminates and demonstrating the role of Lamb or plate wave modes and their utilization for characterizing composite laminates. The third project was concerned with the replacement of contact-type receiving piezotransducers with noncontacting laser-optical sensors for acousto-ultrasonic signal acquisition