Ultrasonic Robotic Sensor with Lateral Resolution

Abstract

Ultrasonic robotic sensors with high axial resolution, using the novel L2QZ transducers for broadband airborne ultrasound, have been extended so that they can also evaluate lateral details of a situation confronting them by using the motion of a robot's arm. This motion produces a synthetic aperture, as the situation is seen repetitively from various aspects by the ultrasonic system mounted on the robot's gripper. For the evaluation of these sequences we use simple time-offlight algorithms or ultrasonic holography imaging algorithms derived from wave theory. Our L2QZ-transducers yield good resolution in the axial and lateral directions. With the typical bandwith of 250 kHz and a center frequency of 200 kHz a resolution of about 1 mm is achieved in both the lateral and axial direction.