A Study on Propagation Characteristics of Spread Spectrum Sound Waves

Using a Band-Limited Ultrasonic Transducer

Paper:

A Study on Propagation Characteristics of

Spread Spectrum Sound Waves
Using a Band-Limited Ultrasonic Transducer
Akio Yamane, Taketoshi Iyota, Yongwoon Choi, Yuzuru Kubota,
and Kazuhiro Watanabe
Faculty of Engineering, Soka University
1-236 Tangi, Hachioji, Tokyo 192-8577, Japan
E-mail: watanabe@t.soka.ac.jp
[Received October 20, 2003; accepted December 5, 2003]

Propagation characteristics and range experiments of
spread spectrum 40kHz ultrasonic waves have been
explored under band-limited frequency. Comparative
experiments were conducted using two arrangements
combining a broadband speaker and a microphone
for the broadband case, and an all-purpose receiving
transducer and the broadband speaker for the
band-limited case. Under the broadband condition,
range accuracy measurements and evaluation of
signal discrimination in a code division multiple
transmission were made demonstrating 0.034%
(corresponding to about 7mm in range distance) of
range accuracy for a full-scale distance of 21.6m,
demonstrating high signal discrimination. The
severely band-limited experiment improved accuracy
from 0.084% for a distance of 8.4m to 0.063% for a
greater distance of 14.4m using a longer M-sequence
length by extending shift registers from 10-bit to
15-bit. These experimental results show promise in
the intended application of ultrasonic spread spectra
to local positioning systems.
Keywords: spread spectrum, ultrasonic sound wave,
range measurement, global positioning system
1. Introduction
For autonomous mobile robots that collaborate with
human beings, recognition of their own positions is
indispensable for robots to avoid obstacles and to
navigate accurately to destinations. Ultrasonic sensors
have long been used in a variety of applications because
they are cost-effective, compact, and simple to use as
practical sensors to collect information on conditions.
Ultrasonic sensors have the disadvantage of being
susceptible to interference resulting from ultrasonic
signals or noise, preventing so simultaneous driving of
several ultrasonic sensors. To obtain omnidirectional
range information while avoiding cross-talk problem,
multiple ultrasonic sensors are used to form a sonar ring
and drive each sensor by allocating specific time
slots [1], or to use ultrasonic pulse code with lower
cross-correlations [2] where these methods are immune
to noise.
We propose and study a local positioning system
(LPS) using spread spectrum sound waves instead of
electromagnetic waves, as an analogy for global
positioning systems (GPS) by satellites based on
real-time positioning by electromagnetic waves. Our
preliminary experiments yielded high range accuracy in
indoor circumstances showing high signal discrimina-
tion and noise rejection due to code division multiple
access for range measurements based on spread
spectrum sound waves. Under the spread spectrum
principle, the widest possible frequency bandwidth is
used. A series of previous experiments using a 10kHz
audio carrier frequency, which is readily prepared with a
relatively broad frequency response by combining a
normal transmitter/receiver (commercially used speaker
and microphone), yields a range accuracy of 0.037%
(corresponding to a 7mm range error) for a full-scale
distance of 18m [3]. This precision is practical for use of
indoor LPS and analogous to the GPS principle.
Although some workers have studied sound wave
experiments modulated with pseudo random noise
(PRN) code by phase-shift-keying [4-7], no attempt has
been made, to our knowledge, on GPS analogous
approach dealing with an alternative positioning indoor
system.
Extending the above audio experiments to ultrasonic
frequency from the viewpoint of practical convenience
of positioning systems, widely-used, all-purpose ultra-
sonic transducers may involve problems in band-limited
performance because the accuracy and noise-tolerance
brought by signal discrimination increase proportionally
to the spread bandwidth, according to the spread
spectrum signal principle. All-purpose, band-limited
transducers for ultrasonic measurement have a relatively
narrow frequency response showing significant
attenuation of about 20dB at a bandwidth of ±5kHz away
from the center of 40kHz. The commercial emergence of
super audio CDs (SACD) helped promote use of a
wide-band speaker/receiver ensuring the reproduction of

Journal of Robotics and Mechatronics Vol.16 No.3, 2004 333

Yamane, A. et al.
Fig. 1. Maximum length linear shift register sequence to
generate N-bit M-sequences.
Fig. 2. Spread spectrum signal launched from the speaker
with phase-shift-keying modulation at every Tc[us] on a
carrier wave with a period of T[us] sampled at T/8.
high-frequency sounds up to 100kHz. However, the use
of such high-performance audio devices is inadequate in
size and cost compared to all-purpose transducers, and
lacks practicability for sensor systems with a number of
speakers/receivers such as a sonar-ring sensor
system [1], spatial information measurement [8] and
three-dimensional measurement using plural sensors [9].
Hence, it is worth while determining how such
all-purpose ultrasonic transducers demonstrate
propagation characteristics and range accuracy, which
are highly band-limited compared to the normal audio
speaker/receiver configuration, in the actual indoor
environment.
This paper presents experimental studies on
propagation characteristics of spread spectrum ultrasonic
sound waves using a 40kHz carrier frequency compared
to using a broadband receiver and an all-purpose
band-limited one. Range accuracy measurement and
evaluation of signal discrimination in code division
multiple transmission were made with a broadband
stable gain receiver. Range measurements using an
all-purpose receiver were also made using an
all-purpose, band-limited receiver under experimental
conditions. We found that using a longer M-sequence
code up to 15 bits greatly improved range accuracy and
measurable range under severely band-limited
conditions due to use of the all-purpose transducer.
Analogous discussions for GPS are given for range
characteristics, together with the detailed system
configuration we used.
334
Fig. 3. Block diagram of experimental setup.
2. Transmission and Reception of Spread
Spectrum Sound Waves
2.1. Generation and Discrimination of Spread
Spectrum Waves
Spread spectrum signals we used consisted of carrier
sine waves modulated with pseudo random noise (PRN)
code by phase-shift-keying. In this investigation, a 7-bit
register used in previous work [3] based on the audio
sound system was extended to a N-bit one to generate
M-sequence code derived from PRN code. Some
M-sequence code was generated by an N-bit shift
register whose taps are connected as shown in Fig.1.
{C1, ..., CN} are connection variables with a value of 1 if
connected and 0 if not. Depending on tap connections,
different M-sequence code can be obtained. By setting
C3 (Tap 3) and C10 (Tap 10) to 1, for instance, a 10-bit
shift register generates a M-sequence code whose code
length is P[N]=210-1 or 1023.
Figure 2 shows a typical spread spectrum signal
digitally produced in our experimental system. The
carrier wave is sinusoidal with a period of T[us]. Instead
of using zero-levels in M-sequence code, we used a
binary real number, -1, to exert phase-shift-keying
modulation on the carrier wave with M-sequence code
consisting of +1 and -1 at every spreading period (chip
period) of Tc[us]. Since the data modulation generally
used in spread spectrum communication was not used,
Journal of Robotics and Mechatronics Vol.16 No.3, 2004