A Surrounding World Knowledge Acquiring by Using a Low-cost Ultrasound Sensors

This article describes a bio-inspired method of identify the type of obstacles which could appear e.g. on the MAV's (Micro Air Vehicles) way. The method is based on measurements made by a low-cost ultrasonic sensor. This kind of sensors are widely used for a distance measurement. The bio-inspired method used by ultrasound sensors uses echo of ultrasound signal to collect the knowledge about the surrounding world. Bats, which use ultrasonic waves to navigate in the dark, were our source of inspiration. In our research we are focusing on the off-the-shelf sensors because of their wide availability. We have shown that we can determine not only the distance but also we can get the basic information about the surrounding space by using the measurement obtained from a simple ultrasonic sensor. Three types of obstacles (smooth surface, rugged or uneven surface, a multifaceted space) and distant space beyond the reach of measurement have been distinguished. All prepared obstacles have been identified properly in our experimental research. Additionally the proposed method can better determine the distance from the nonsmooth surface. A classic method for measuring such obstacles, for which a standard deviation is calculated may not be sufficiently credible due to too large error. In such situation, our analysis allows the use of distance measurement with much more confidence. Our method has been developed in order to support MAV navigation system based on distance measurements made by ultrasonic sensor.