Differentiating sonar reflections from corners and planes by employing an intelligent sensor

A multitransducer, pulse/echo-ranging system is described that differentiates corner and plane reflectors by exploiting the physical properties of sound propagation. The amplitudes and ranges of reflected signals for the different transmitter and receiver pairs are processed to determine whether the reflecting object is a plane or a right-angle corner. In addition, the angle of inclination of the reflector with respect to the transducer orientation can be measured. Reflected signal amplitude and range values, as functions of inclination angle, provide the motivation for the differentiation algorithm. A system using two Polaroid transducers is described that correctly discriminates between corners and planes for inclination angles within +or-10 degrees of the transducer orientation. The two-transducer system is extended to a multitransducer array, allowing the system to operate over an extended range. An analysis comparing processing effort to estimation accuracy is performed.>