FPGA-based Implementation of an Ultrasonic Beacon for a Local Positioning System

Abstract

Ultrasonic transducers have been often used to develop Local Positioning Systems (LPS) in the field of intelligent spaces. In these systems, it is necessary to design an ultrasonic beacon, which is distributed in the environment to cover a determined area where mobile robots or people can be located. This work describes the design and the implementation of an ultrasonic beacon in an FPGA-based platform. The design is flexible enough to allow the real-time configuration of the ultrasonic emission, according to parameters as efficient encoding or suitable modulation schemes. Furthermore, the beacons have available a I2C link, so they are in permanent communication for exchanging configuration parameters and synchronization, not only among them, but also with a central configuration module.