Differentiating a Set of Materials with Ultrasonic Sensors for Mobile Robot Applications

Differentiating a Set of Materials with Ultrasonic Sensors for Mobile Robot Applications

  A method to differentiate a set of materials with ultrasonic sensor measurements is proposed for mobile robot navigation. Mobile robots often use a map of its environment to plan a safe path to the destination. Environmental map is essential in self-localization of mobile robots in that the landmarks of the map are used to estimate the position of the robot. Material type such as wood, concrete, and so on convey valuable information to the process of self-localization. This work has identified the material-dependent characteristic changes in the ultrasonic echo once the wave is reflected off an object whose surface is made of a certain material. The obtained echo signal models are used to recognize material type after processing the reflected echo. The experimental results show that the proposed method may build more informative map. The proposed method could also be applicable to search for a specific material in the environment.